{"id":4849,"date":"2019-01-01T09:05:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T09:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2019-01-01T09:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T09:08:52","slug":"new-years-eve-viennese-gala-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4849","title":{"rendered":"New Year\u2019s Eve Viennese Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, The Dome, Brighton, 31 December 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The New Year concert is always a pleasure, and a highlight of the whole season, and under Richard Balcombe\u2019s gently deft guidance it was as good as I can recall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/R-Balcombe.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4851\" src=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/R-Balcombe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The familiar came up as fresh as ever \u2013 extended excerpts from <em>Die Fledermaus<\/em> and three pieces by Franz Lehar \u2013 alongside Strauss\u2019 <em>Explosions Polka <\/em>and Suppe\u2019s <em>Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna. <\/em>Another regular innovation was the inclusion of waltz music from Britain, opening with Robert Farnon\u2019s <em>Westminster Waltz<\/em> and the nostalgic delights of Mantovani\u2019s orchestration of <em>Charmaine. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Soprano Ilona Domnich provided the operatic pieces. Her lower register does not have the impact of the top of the voice, which made for some difficulty of balance in the opening sections of <em>Meine Lippen<\/em> and <em>Vilja<\/em>, but the top of the voice is so strongly focused that the coloratura elements are thrilling. Her encore aria, Alexander Alabiev\u2019s <em>The Nightingale, <\/em>proved to be the most captivating item of her repertoire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ilona-Domnich.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4852\" src=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ilona-Domnich.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The orchestra demonstrated the strengths of its individual performers with a fine cello solo in the Suppe and moving harp arpeggios in the hushed moments of the <em>Gold und Silber waltz.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The first half concluded with the <em>Emperor Waltz<\/em> and the whole afternoon \u2013 inevitably \u2013 with the <em>Blue Danube<\/em> and <em>Radetsky March<\/em> to which we clapped with impeccable precision sans direction!<\/p>\n<p>An impressively full house responded with enthusiasm throughout. Let us hope they are encouraged to come back for more.<\/p>\n<p>The next concert brings cellist Thomas Carroll with works by Prokofiev, Schumann and Mendelssohn. www.brightonphil.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, The Dome, Brighton, 31 December 2018 The New Year concert is always a pleasure, and a highlight of the whole season, and under Richard Balcombe\u2019s gently deft guidance it was as good as I can recall. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4849\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4854,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/4854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}