Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
Brighton Dome
Conductor: Geoffrey Paterson
Soloist: Evelyn Glennie
01 December 2024
Dame Evelyn Glennie CH, CBE is unique. No one else has (yet) made a sparklng, worldwide career as a very famous solo percussionist. She fills halls wherever she goes and the almost sold out Brighton Dome was no exception. It was a joy to see many young people and children in the audience.
Walking onto the stage in her stockinged feet (presumably so she can better absorb the vibrations which is how she “hears”) she captivated the audience from the first tam-tam crash in James Macmillan’s Veni Veni Emmanuel (1992) – a wonderfully appropriate choice for the first Sunday in Advent although that point wasn’t laboured. Glennie’s instruments – various drums, marimba, vibraphone and more – were arranged at the front of the stage with the orchestra sitting well back. She walked calmly from one to the other with the extended solo on woodblocks and gongs being a particular high spot. The marimba quasi-cadenza underpinned by muted violin harmonics and cello pedal notes was special too.
For those who wish to share it at that level this is a deeply religious work for Advent working though various moods and statements to the extraordinary Easter coda – Macmillan loves the drama of his faith. Thus, at the end, orchestral players hold small pieces of tinkling metal which they play to create an Easter vigil. In this performance Paterson ensured it was arrestingly powerful as Glennie moved solemnly to the tubular bells at the back of the orchestra, the audience audibly spellbound. The echo of the bells lasted for several minutes, while Paterson stood arms out (reminiscent of crucifixion although that may not have been intentional) ensuring that hundreds of people present listened to the dying sound in rapt silence. Then Glennie slowly damped the bells one by one and eventually we were allowed to applaud – and some.
The concert had launched the Scotland theme (both Macmillan and Glennie are Scottish) with Peter Maxwell Davies’s warmly descriptive An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise (1985), The bagpipe solo (Robert Jordan) was as hauntingly evocative as anything in the programme.
Then, after the interval came Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (1888) for which the players moved to their usual position near the front of the stage. Paterson drew a colourful sound from the orchestra from the first bar and Ruth Rogers, BPO leader, played the solos, which represent the voice of the threatened story teller in the legend, with plaintive passion. Among the many noteworthy features in this performance were beautiful bassoon playing (Jonathan Price) in the second movement, melodic grandiloquence and some very pretty pizzicato work in the third movement and some fine brass playing, with the piccolo, in the joyous penultimate statement. It sent this reviewer away singing for several hours afterwards.
This concert was both mighty and moving.
