Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, Friday 8 March 2024, 7.30pm Mighty River: Celebrating Women

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, Friday 8 March 2024, 7.30pm

Mighty River: Celebrating Women

Review by Janet Lawrence

Thus begins the concert featuring women composers, all from the 1900s, except for Arkansas-born Florence Price, who spanned the centuries until 1953.

Taking our seats, we see an empty stage. Places set for the orchestra but no players, just conductor and pianist Joanna MacGregor and a grand piano. She starts with Meredith Monk’s “Ellis Island”: a clear, simple piece - no chords, just a bubbly, repetitive melody on the right hand. Not so the second piece by Nina Simone, who we lost only 20 years ago. Joanna herself saw her perform at Ronnie Scott’s on her eighteenth birthday.

Nina Simone’s piano piece, “Good Bait”, is simple and clear - no chords, at least for a while, before it’s embellished with fulsome chords on the left hand.

Chairs are rearranged for four musicians to join Joanna: lead violin Ruth Rogers, with violinist Kathy Shave, Caroline Harrison on viola and cellist Peter Adams.

Eleanor Alberga’s Piano Quintet “Clouds”. It’s the third movement with African rhythms. Jamaican born Eleanor, a good friend of Joanna’s, now lives in the UK, Still cheerfully composing, in her early 70s.

It begins with the cello, then a violin theme with Ruth plucking strings, the others joining in. Joanna comes in with a discreet piano while the strings harmonise together and gradually the piano takes the lead. Quite a complicated piece, that lulls us into a hypnotic state so we just let go and sink into it.

Then the full orchestra comes on. The piano’s gone and Joanna is conducting for Errollyn Wallen, born 1958.

Errollyn has a dizzying saga of composition studies to her name: Goldsmith and King’s College venues for a start; her portfolio includes 20 operas and two works for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games. Plus she’s a singer. I could go on. But we’re hearing the orchestra tune up and waiting for her 2007 orchestral work Mighty River.

The title gives you a clue: a horn solo heralds the abolition of slavery. We hear familiar tunes from the Deep South: Amazing Grace being one of them. Wind section depicting rivulets of water. An occasional brass outburst and a bit of the tune Deep River. The harp comes to life with Alex Rider. Some tempo changes, ie 3:4 and 4:4. A bit like dancing.

There was so much going on in this work that there isn’t time for a blow by blow. But I will mention the instruments at the back - timpani with Graham Reader (how does he know which drum to hit?) and the wonderful unobtrusive Donna Maria Landowski, over to the left, coming in at carefully timed moments. Tapping briefly on a xylophone; on a triangle, on a drum on her lap. She’s all over the place, and plays an important part.

Enthralling, said my companion, Emma.

And we haven’t even got to the live event. Ayanna Witter-Johnson, 39, interantionally known and with the musical experience of a veteran. A supremely gifted singer, cellist and composer.

There’s no orchestra, she’s solo. “Good evening, beautiful people,” she says. She has a presence - tall, dark haired, slim - she floats onto the stage in a long white sleeveless dress, a sparkling bracelet on her arm, carrying her cello. She puts a different slant on new music. Is it classical? Is it pop? It’s a genre of its own.

She sets up and sings four songs she composed: “Ain’t I a Woman?” to start. There’s a sensuality about her. She loves her art and smiles as she sings and plays her own compositions, a mixture of blues, soul, folk and jazz. Her talent is almost intimidating - confidence and self-projection. She believes in what she’s doing and expresses it.

“Merci,” she says, as we clap enthusiastically.

And, sated though we are with such female abundance, we had for dessert the first African American woman to have her music played by a major American orchestra: Florence Price. The orchestra, Joanna conducting, plays her nine-movement “Mississippi River” suite - lyrical, warm and passionate. Clarinet opens with a few notes echoed by the orchestra. Nice harp interludes; flutes chirp in; a symbol clashes in the back; violins swoop. “Let my people go,” we hear, and the “Deep River” tune, and “Way down upon the Swanee River.” Pure nostalgia.

Whistles and calls greeted each piece. It’s a rare thing that women are celebrated for their contributions to the classical music world. There was Fanny Mendelssohn, whose father dismissed her skills as just a hobby; Clara Schumann, while bearing 8 children; 12th century Hildegard von Bingen, and not to mention Brighton’s very own Sally Beamish! A very satisfying concert - congratulations to Joanna MacGregor, all musicians and The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra.

Next: Sea Songs: Brighton Dome, Sunday 7 April, 2.45pm. Tickets from £13 / Child £1. Tickets 01273 709709.