A capacity audience was treated to a blockbuster programme of orchestral music last Thursday (20 March 2025) which encompassed Beethoven’s heroic ‘Emperor’ Concerto and the mighty Symphony No.10 by Shostakovich. A full-scale symphony orchestra, including at various points triple woodwind, bass clarinet and contrabassoon, snare drum, tam-tam and xylophone, gave every ounce of energy to deliver a rousing and emotionally charged performance.
The evening started with a miniature tone poem by Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov, Baba Yaga. In a style reminiscent of the programme music of French composer Paul Dukas, the composer deployed syncopation, chromatic scales and a wide range of orchestral effects to depict the Wicked Witch of the title, based on a folk story popular in Russia and Eastern Europe. The orchestra, conducted by Robin Browning and led by Helen Purchase, successfully highlighted the colour and drama of the story as motifs were echoed around different instrument groups from whispering flutes to growling contrabassoon.
Next Ariel Lanyi, a young award winning young pianist, took to the stage for the much-loved Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat by Beethoven, so called ‘Emperor’ (although it is not clear why this epithet exists.) The bombastic opening chord with which the piece opens quickly gives way to cascades of scalic and arpeggiated passages on the piano, almost like a cadenza, which the soloist accomplished with utmost grace and delicacy. The dialogue between piano and orchestra was beautifully delineated throughout. Ariel showed an ability to lift his playing to powerful heights with firm and sure finger-work, only to drop down into hushed pianissimos which the audience clearly found spell-binding.
The famous slow (Adagio) movement, with its rising and falling chains of piano trills, was delivered masterfully. The sheer poetry of the music shone through, as Ariel employed all his powers of expression to interweave the piano lines with the lilting orchestral writing. The dominance of the piano, thematically and stylistically, however, was never in doubt (Beethoven was writing for his own instrument); Ariel threw himself into the expressive and slow melodic lines with some powerful, impassioned playing.
The slow movement segued into a playful Rondo finale which ended the Concerto on a joyous note. Long sustained calls from the horn and oboe acted as ‘pedal’ notes underpinning the musical texture as the varied and inventive episodes progressed towards the final conclusion. After his ovation, Ariel was not allowed to leave before giving the audience an encore, for which he chose Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor, a moment of slow, quiet contemplation after the tempestuous Concerto.
To finish, Petersfield Orchestra rose to the challenge of Shostakovich’s massive 10th symphony. All hands were on deck to deliver this epic and sometimes angry statement of dissidence from a composer clearly at odds with the authoritarian regime of Stalin under which he lived. Of particular note were solos by bassoon, clarinet, piccolo and first violin – full marks to these members of the orchestra.
First performed shortly after Stalin’s death, the Symphony covers a gamut of musical styles and moods from tragedy and despair to anger. A haunting string introduction quickly builds to a noisy climax, only to retreat into a more introvert mood. The second movement Scherzo follows a nightmarish march rhythm, and is said to be a musical portrait of Stalin with its military overtones. The beautiful third movement is based on personal motifs and here the orchestra switched gears to express a sense of the composer’s longing in an intensely private and romantic mood.
In culmination, the full battery of percussion was let loose in a massive climax in the final Allegro. The motifs in the slow movement are re-articulated exultantly by the brass but are overlaid now by a sense of triumph and assertiveness. Conductor Robin Browning and the orchestra threw everything at this music to thrilling effect – screaming piccolos, piercing flutes, massive brass (trombones, trumpets, tuba), snare drum and tambourine all added to the colour and volume of the fortissimos. If the audience felt shattered at the end, the orchestra must have felt equally exhausted by such a sustained passionate outpouring – a test of stamina they maintained superbly right until the final notes of this invigorating display of virtuoso music.
