Dome welcomes Shuntaru Sato

BRIGHTON has long been regarded as a pleasant place to visit and musicians in particular are assured of the warmest of welcomes from the Brighton Philharmonic faithful.
By The Newsroom
Published 31st Mar 2007, 12:32 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 00:49 BST

Paying a first visit to the Dome on Saturday, March 10 was Japanese conductor Shuntaru Sato, whose reception was so enthusiastic it must surely have softened even his native inscrutability.

It was well merited as he coaxed the very best out of the BPO throughout the penultimate concert in the rightfully much acclaimed Orchestral Images season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sato conducted with a controlled measure of both flourish and stillness and after the opening Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky returned four times to acknowledge the warm applause.

His batonless style helped make him an instant hit and it was easy to see why the London Phil have invited him back every year since he made his debut with them in 1999.

Second visitor was much vaunted violinist Nicola Loud, whose credentials were on display right from the start of Mendelssohn's exquisite Violin Concerto in E Minor.

She played the piece with a confidence that has been honed perfectly since her first arrival on the national scene with a BBC Young Musician of the Year success at the age of 15.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This was her second appearance with the BPO and both they and their audience will be delighted to see her return as many times as she likes after another memorable performance.

After such a strong first half it needed something of similar magnitude to retain interest and the BPO did not disappoint with Beethoven's evocative Symphony No 6 (Pastoral).

It made for a truly classic concert, with the famous dialogue between nightingale, quail and cuckoo giving BPO principal players Christine Messiter (flute), Alun Derbyshire (oboe) and Wilfred Goddard (clarinet) the perfect vehicle to display their undoubted talents.

The final concert in the 82nd season is on Sunday March 25 when the BPO's Composer in Focus Martin Butler paves the way for a series of musical postcards with his Fixed Doubles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Brighton resident and internationally-renowned pianist Artur Pizarro performs Saint-Saens' Egyptian Concerto and Da Falla's Nights in the Garden of Spain before the curtain comes down with Respighi's majestic Pines of Rome.

It promises to be a memorable finale to a memorable season.