Peter Jablonski performs Haydn, Liszt, Chopin and Copland

An engaging soloist, passionate conductor and fantastic orchestral playing made light work of a slightly lop-sided and overlong concert. 

This past weekend offered a taste of the great British summer with temperatures soaring into the high 20s. And yet, despite the lure of an afternoon spent reclining on the sunny beaches of the South Coast, large crowds flocked to the Lighthouse in Poole to watch the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform in their annual Benevolent Fund Concert, led by Portuguese conductor Rui Pinheiro.

Peter Jablonski’s contribution to the Southbank Centre’s ongoing International Piano Series was an unusual mixture of music from nineteenth-century Europe and twentieth-century America, featuring works by Liszt, Grieg, Gershwin, Copland and Barber.The first half was all moody nineteenth-century romanticism, with ‘ballades’ by Liszt and Grieg.

Como el aprendiz de brujo, bajo su batuta mágica Antoni Wit logró que la Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra y el pianista Peter Jablonski transformaran las composiciones de los grandes compositores rusos del siglo XIX y XX en olas bulliciosas y torbellinos de vientos que cautivaron el auditorio del Baluarte.

Serious music ill-matched by filmic limitations as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Messiaen’s epic “symphony” as part of the Southbank’s cross-genre festival.