Having started their 100th season with a strong Rite of Spring, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra chose an even more ambitious feat for their centenary gala concert: Messaien’s colossal Turangalîla-Symphonie. Ever since the BPO emerged from the pandemic, Music Director Joanna MacGregor has been pushing their programming in new directions, with Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Elgar joined this season by Górecki, Reich, Herrmann and MacMillan, to name just a few, and star guests such as Jess Gillam, Evelyn Glennie and Colin Currie. They’ve continued to experiment with moving out of the ‘cosy’ Sunday afternoon slot at the Brighton Dome, with great success. Jazz, film and choral music have also featured, as well as abstract film projections. Brighton audiences are clearly ready for more imaginative classical programming, and can even be persuaded to go out at night to hear it. Who’d have thought it?
As a pianist, MacGregor has performed the Messaien with Cynthia Millar (ondes Martenot) on many occasions, although with the recent withdrawal of Sian Edwards, she stepped up to the podium instead. The phenomenal solo part was thus taken by one of MacGregor’s former pupils at the Royal Academy of Music, Australian pianist and composer Joseph Havlat. And the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, at its largest formation this year, was straining at the edges of the Brighton Dome stage. The percussion section (today some nine players strong, in addition to celesta and keyed glockenspiel players) has featured prominently throughout the season; they gave an assured and confident response to Messaien’s heavy demands, with key moments for maracas, tam-tam and wood block.
The Turangalîla was the centrepiece of Messaien’s triptych on the Tristan and Iseult myth, a celebration of human love. It is, let’s face it, a bonkers extravagance, with so many full-on orchestral climaxes, one is already exhausted by about halfway through, as the central Joie du sang des étoiles builds its ecstatic dance towards its wild conclusion. The BPO were certainly joyful here, although not completely abandoning themselves to the explosion of sound. The brass went for it more than the rest, but as a result it did threaten to derail briefly at one point. But there were still many more climaxes to come before the joyous brass heralded the final section. Here the orchestra delivered a truly massive sound, and although not every onset of the huge tutti chords was perfectly clean, they ended with lush waves of warmth and celebration.
In between, there were moments of subtlety too, such as the weird combination of ondes Martenot, vibraphone and tubular bells, along with jazz pizzicato double basses in the Turangalîla 1 movement, and the cartoonish dance in Chant d’amour. Havlat was astonishing in the various piano cadenzas, thundering through the virtuosic flourishes in the fifth movement especially. Millar was a constant secure presence, with the eery slides and otherworldly melodies emerging from the ondes Martenot. Balance must be tough to achieve here, and occasionally the instrument was either hard to hear or overpowering, but gradually one absorbed its strangeness into the overall soundscape.
Ultimately, this was a triumph of ambition and commitment, and MacGregor, Millar, Havlat and all the BPO players deserve high praise for pulling off this vast endeavour to end their centenary season. Happy 100th, and we look forward to where they go next season – an appearance in the city’s own Brighton Festival is surely deserved.
