Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, David Fray (piano), Kirill Karabits (conductor)

Wake up Brighton! BSO is one of the best in Britain so why wasn’t the Dome full?

You missed a fine interpretation of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Fray, heavy with cold, played with exceptional lightness (perhaps to ease a headache?) but also with mature musicality and brooding power.

Two less familiar Russian suites, Glazunov’s ‘From the Middle Ages’ and Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.3 began and completed this programme. They too were very graceful and sensitive performances, the pianissimos being quite as dramatic as the climaxes. Such controlled ensemble playing enabled a particularly effective extended cymbal crescendo in the Tchaikovsky – top rate!

Dome Concert Hall, 18 November 2017

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