In an electrifying programme of Czech and Russian music, The Halle demonstrated its worldclass status for the Brighton Festival.
It wasn’t just the orchestra that had a capacity audience on its feet: Benjamin Grosvenor, Gareth Small, the Brighton Festival Chorus and soloists, under conductor Mark Elder, played their parts with dazzling skill, equal contributors to certain astringent but accessible musical idioms of the mid-20th century.
Janacek’s intensely individual operas were built on characters. The suite from his Little Vixen illustrated some of them, a fantasy with colourful onomatopoeic phrases, eloquently shaped by the light touch of Mark Elder, sans baton.
The Glagolitic Mass, a primitive church Slavonic opera, built on speech pattern sounds, was dramatic and theatrical. Huge vocal and instrumental forces produced richly varied orchestration, magnificent crescendos and abrupt finales.
Shostakovitch’s Concerto For Piano And Trumpet was brisker and brassier with motor rhythms and few lyrical moments. It is very technically demanding which Benjamin Grosvenor hardly seemed to notice. The brilliant young pianist gave a terrific account, ably abetted by trumpeter Gareth Small.
For most, it would have been an unfamiliar music, requiring Elder and the Halle to make the sound exploration and musical explosions stupendously worthwhile.
Five stars
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