BPO – Centenary Gala: Turangalîla Symphony – Joseph Havlat (piano), Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot), Joanna MacGregor (conductor)

We all knew it would be glorious – and of course it was! Brighton’s much-loved professional Orchestra is100 years old and still going strong. Careful management, inspired programming and effective publicity have brought fresh crowds into the Dome. They come for top class performances of the best music. Over ten decades the faithful BPO audience has trusted successive Music Directors to interest, educate and tease it into enjoying a wider and more adventurous repertoire.

That said, Olivier Messiaen’s orchestral masterpiece was a bold choice for this year’s Gala finale. It’s so very expensive (not that long ago to have booked 95 top-rate performers would have been financial suicide) and it demands so much from the players and the audience. Its ten movements depicting cosmic love and dance are extraordinary, very different from the usual Sunday afternoon programming. Frenetic, percussive and full of surprises, it still sounds excitingly modern, 76 years after Leonard Bernstein conducted the first performance.

The orchestra rose heroically to the occasion and managed to thrill, sparkle and shimmer, expressing all the extremes of pitch, tempo and dynamics in Messiaen’s score, with its exotic time signatures and abrupt changes of mood. They were in very safe hands with their MD conducting. However much she may have looked forward to playing the piano, she was certainly in her element all afternoon and her enthusiasm was very infectious.

Rehearsing: Joseph Havlat Joanna MacGregor © Frances Marshall

Joseph Havlat, once a star pupil of MacGregor, was centre stage and rightly dominated the performance with some astonishingly brutal passages as well as tender, lyrical moments and Messiaen’s distinctive elements of bird song. However, I was glad not to be in the front row of the stalls – the volume at times must have been overwhelming.

BPO – Joseph-Havlat © Frances-Marshall.png

Moreover, alongside his majestic and powerful piano was an array of loudspeakers for the mysterious ondes martenot. Its infinitely variable pitch, like a super-charged musical saw or electronic slide whistle, contributed the significant feature of this work. It generated prominent glissandos that soared above the orchestral textures, producing a very other-worldly effect. This could so easily have been kitsch or over-powering but in Cynthia Millar’s sensitive hands it gave a rich lustre to the music.

Cynthia Millar

Now this wonderful work is her party piece and it has taken her around the world for many years but for everyone else on that platform it was a rare treat and a tremendous challenge, even for the audience. Joanna MacGregor held it all together for an hour and twenty minutes, every section of the orchestra giving their very best and closing the season with a tremendous burst of energy.

The BPO is entering its second century with great optimism, a devoted audience and a vibrant, youthful orchestra thriving under its dynamic Music Director. The Centenary Season has been a great success. We can expect the 2026 season to be just as diverse and spectacular.

Brighton Dome Concert Hall,
13 April 2025
Andrew Connal

Rating:

Messiaen – Turangalîla Symphony