Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra offer a feast of gorgeous, tuneful music – review

This year's Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra is back for the 2022/23 season. Last Sunday 2nd October was the first concert of an extremely innovative season, not only of music but of venues - a feast of gorgeous, tuneful music from 20th century composers Gershwin and Copland. Incorporating jazz themes, branching out to South American, blues, eloquent violin and wind solos.

Just to make us feel secure, the first concert was at The Dome, with a heart warming, uplifting programme of 20th century American composers. Copland, Gershwin and, in case we got complacent, a 1968 short composition by Joan Tower - a defiant, three-minute humorous response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, called "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman".

Many children in the audience. A long concert for a child, but they coped. The 8-year old beside me fidgeted but settled, while a four-year-old in the front row conducted the music. Great to see them - they're the future..

The orchestra welcomed a new Lead Violin, Ruth Rogers, in her first concert with the BPO. She comes from long years of experience with a dazzling list of orchestras, conductors and venues. Much loved John Bradbury, lead violin for 30 years, is deservedly enjoying retirement.

Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Born in 1900, the 42-year-old composed it to commemorate "the dawn of the century of the common man". We're left to figure that one out, but trumpets, horns, trombones and a tuba were punctuated by percussion that heralds a stirring acknowledgment of a new era.

Sian Edwards took the baton to free up the Phil's Music Director Joanna MacGregor for her solo and accompanying piano rôles, especially in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. MacGregor, rampant blonde hair streaming, has a steady touch, faultlessly guiding the orchestra.

Tucked away at the extreme side, only seen from seats above, was the talented Donna-Maria Landowski. She came in at carefully timed moments with a quick tap on the triangle, a few phrases on a xylophone, a spontaneous clash of the cymbals, to name a few items of her repertoire of incidental sounds that popped into the score.

Joanna came into her own with the piano introduction to George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue', continuing throughout the piece along with the orchestra's percussion section. Gershwin was only 26 when in 1924 he composed this 'crossover' combination of classical with jazz; witty motifs, laced with South American rhythm and blues, not forgetting the famous opening wailing clarinet glissando that sends shivers.

I'm always stunned by the timpani - four large drums at back of stage, How does the Graham Reader know which one does what? They all look the same. They played an important part, except for Copland's Quiet City, when Graham Reader sat through it with hands folded, and all the brass section moved out.

Quiet City - a lovely short piece for trumpet, cor anglais and strings. Fronting the orchestra, John Ellwood opened with solo trumpet, Clare Hoskins - glamorous in a long black dress - following with cor anglais, a long silver instrument that baffled me at first. Looks like an extended clarinet, but plays with an oboe-like reed, and a mellow sound. Strings evoked the atmosphere and loneliness of a New York night: working people facing the struggles of life.

And we breathed, in anticipation of George Gershwin's Symphonic Suite: Catfish Row from his opera Porgy and Bess. It premiered in 1935, two years before Gershwin died age 38. A homage to American music, it deals with poverty, community and religion. The five-section suite, orchestrated by composer Ferde Grofé, needed Donna-Maria's xylophone, Joanna's piano. A challenge to play; a ground breaking and controversial opera. Gershwin and members of his estate demanded that all rôles, since they featured black Americans, must be sung by people of colour. This, in the 1930s when black prejudice was still rife. We hear our favourites: a violin solo playing 'Summertime', a banjo (not your average classical instrument) with 'I got plenty o' nuttin'', a cello lead-up to 'Bess you is my Woman Now'.

The story's ending is at once tragic and uplifting, both in the performance and for us, the audience, as we left with our heads full of the songs that we'd be humming all the way home.

Next Brighton Philharmonic concert at The Dome: 27 November: Haydn and Mahler - Transfiguration. 2.45pm. Box Office 01273 709709 and online.