LPO – A Little Bit in Love – Danielle de Niese (soprano), Wilson Ng* (conductor)

Wow! A supercharged Valentine’s votive: a world-class orchestra and our local Diva Deliziosa – obviously musically top-rate, flawless indeed, although I did wonder about the microphone. Does a voice that can fill any opera house really need amplification? Well, yes if it allows her to croon, and smooch, and snuggle up to her audience in so many intimate ways. However, when the full voice just couldn’t be restrained any longer, a half step back let the sound flow gloriously unfiltered into the auditorium giving us that operatic moment to which Musical Theatre aspires.

This jolly celebration was also a serious concert. Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is rated as an operetta, as if that is a lesser form of music, but its dynamic overture is not for sissies. Hearing it performed by a proper symphony orchestra rather than just the few players in a theatre pit was a joy. The LPO were on splendid form, doing it full justice, following Wilson Ng*’s clear and expressive direction.

A fair selection of the orchestra then departed the platform, leaving the luscious strings and soloists to accompany Danielle de Niese in the wistful Dream with Me, a treasure that was lost Bernstein’s bottom drawer for nearly 50 years. It set the romantic scene perfectly, to be sweetly followed by Bernstein in a more perky mood in A Little Bit in Love. I’m so glad I was able to scan through the lyrics in the programme before the concert because these are serious songs and make demands of the audience as well as the singer. The young Stephen Sondheim famously wrote the snappy words for I Feel Pretty and we were then treated to three Sondheim songs, the unsentimental Green Finch and Linnet Bird, the witty and breathless On the Steps of the Palace, and the chilling I Wish I Could Forget You. This Valentine’s Day was not all sweetness and light but rather especially romantic.

Danielle de Niese

I couldn’t place Gershwin’s Girl Crazy until the music began. The Overture is full of famous tunes including I Got Rhythm, Fascinating Rhythm and Embraceable You. LPO swung into action and began the second half with a charming lightness. However, Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza has a very serious element because, although 26, Clara has the mental age of a 12-year-old, yet she is striving to come to terms with the adult responsibilities of love. While Danielle de Niese characterised this most beautifully, I was very aware that sitting in front of me were two rows of the very attentive 12-year-olds who had supplied the delightful pre-concert serenade in the foyer. I wonder what they made of The Beauty Is. They certainly looked entranced by the selection of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Rodgers & Hammerstein classics. I hate men raised giggles and Lerner & Loewe’s I Could Have Danced All Night brought the Valentine theme to a super climax. Through the waves of applause we could all see the cellos sorting their music for an encore. Some guessed correctly and there was a complete operatic experience in the reprise of Can’t Help Loving that Man of Mine, directed coquettishly at a certain husband in the stalls. It brought the house down. This grand concert hall extravaganza somehow had all the cosiness of a sing-along by the piano, no small feat and rather lovely!

Andrew Connal
Brighton Dome Concert Hall,
14 February 2026

Rating:

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Danielle de Niese (soprano),
Wilson Ng* (conductor)

Programme:
Bernstein – Overture, Candide (1956)
Bernstein – Dream with Me (Peter Pan, 1950)
Bernstein – A Little Bit in Love (Wonderful Town, 1953)
Bernstein – I Feel Pretty (West Side Story, 1957)
Sondheim – Green Finch and Linnet Bird (Sweeney Todd, 1979)
Sondheim – On the Steps of the Palace (Into the Woods, 1986)
Sondheim – I Wish I Could Forget You (Passion, 1994)

Gershwin – Overture, Girl Crazy (1930)
Guettel – The Beauty Is (The Light in the Piazza, 2003)
Guettel – The Light in the Piazza
Porter – I Hate Men (Kiss Me Kate, 1948)
Porter – I Get a Kick Out of You (Anything Goes, 1934)
Kern – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Roberta, 1933)
Kern – Can’t Help Loving that Man of Mine (Showboat, 1927)
Rodgers & Hammerstein – What’s the Use of Wond’rin’ (Carousel, 1945)
Rodgers & Hammerstein – Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific, 1949)
Lerner & Loewe – I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady, 1956)