Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Joanna MacGregor
Piano: Khrystyna Mykhailichenko
Violin: Emily Trubshaw
Brighton Dome, 37 September 2026
It’s rare for a concert to showcase the talents of two young soloists in the same programme and it felt like an appropriate way of celebrating Brighton Philharmonic’s first appearance as resident orchestra at the Dome.
The all-20th century afternoon began with Gershwin’s Cuban Overture (1932) which swung along cheerfully with four percussionists forming a jazz quartet behind the second violins. Joanna MacGregor does not, by the way, go in for fancy seating plans and BPO was, as usual, seated in the conventional way. And sensibly the opener was played with the piano already in position which precludes the need for major stage management ten minutes into the concert.
Then came the work which gave the concert its title. And I’ve rarely heard Rachmaninoff’s 1934 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini played with such drama, delicacy and passion. Whether it was heavy chords or the wonderful lyricism of variation 18, Khrystyna Mykhailichenko lived, breathed and delivered every note with panache. Still only 20 and a Royal Academy of Music student studying under Professor Joanna MacGregor, she fled from her native Crimea in 2014 and from Kyiv to the UK with her family in 2022. She looks like Millais’s Lady of Shalott and plays with extraordinary maturity. Expect to hear and see a lot of her in the future.
Of the many fine orchestral moments in the performance was the snare drum with col legno strings in variation 5. However, I disagree with Joanna MacGregor’s assertion in her programme note that this is Rachmaninoff’s “final piano concerto”. It’s a splendid work comprising 24 variations in three sections and it works very well in the traditional concerto slot in a concert programme. It is definitely not, however, a concerto because it doesn’t follow the classical pattern. I’m probably splitting hairs but there we are.
The first work in the second half gave us one movement of Piazzolla’s late 1960s response to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Emily Trubshaw played Primavera Portenta in the 1998 arrangement by Leonid Desyatnikov for solo violin and strings. Music stand heights were raised and the upper strings remained on their feet throughout. The quartet opening, then overridden by virtuosic solo violin. soon joined by all the strings was neatly accomplished under Ruth Rogers’s charismatic leadership – this piece was not conducted. There was visible rapport between the players especially during the quieter passages and Trubshaw did a fine job. It was an enjoyably dynamic performance which raised an audible audience chuckle when it reached the Vivaldi quote at the end.
Then all the other players returned to the stage, with MacGregor, for Janacek’s Sinfonietta. (1926). If thiswere a novel or a play we would regard the famous opening fanfare for timp and 13 brass players, all of whom stood for this passage, as a framing device because it returns at the end of the fourth movement. The piece is a medley of disparate elements but was quite nicely held together here. Highlights included piccolo duetting with the fluttering horn in the third movement along with the incisive trombone statements and the lovely dialogue between flutes and strings in the fifth movement.
A pleasant start to BPO’s 2026/7 season.
