Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra: "The audience loved it, and so did I"

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra has a concert history of innovation and novelty, especially in the last few years when Joanna MacGregor became Artistic Director: Christian Garrick's jazz; vintage films with Buster Keaton - to name a couple.

But last Sunday we were back to those wonderful 18th and 20th century composers that we call classical music. Haydn, Mozart and Mahler. And none better than the Brighton Phil to bring out the nuances and colours of two major symphonies linked by a couple of Mozart arias.

This is one of those concerts where you let your mind sink into it, comforting in its tunefulness and instrumental variety. Each instrument had its moment but made up the whole.

Joseph Haydn's Symphony No 88 - not the usual offering from Haydn, but charming. Haydn had a mischievous sense of humour and is not short of surprises.

Once he's got our attention with the first couple of definite chords, the music calms into a melodic sequence that helps us relax and listen to the tuneful themes that follow. And the flute gives a little burst as we sit back and let the music wash over us in the most relaxing way. No timpani sounds in this piece, from the large kettle drums at the back, while timpanist sat with hands folded.

Barry Wordsworth, Brighton Phil's Artistic Director till 2015, still comes in to guest conduct now and then. It was good to see the familiar elegant conductor using his usual body language to guide the orchestra.

But Haydn pops a few bangs in the second movement, in fact a restful piece, before going into the bouncy third movement in waltz time and leading us into the fourth with wind and trumpet sounds. A classic.

Soprano Carolyn Sampson divided the two symphonies that made up the programme. A vision in a long dress with sparkly black cape covering her shoulders. She sang that plaintive song from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. The part where Countess Almaviva is lamenting the idea of her husband flirting with another woman. Carolyn's measured soprano voice echoes the Countess's remembered moments of love. "Dove sono?", she sings - "where are the lovely moments of sweetness and pleasure?"

The second Mozart aria, "Ah se in ciel, benign Stelle", has a different story. It honours the 25-year-old Mozart's regard (and first love) for Aloysia Weber, who went off and married someone else. Mozart happily married her sister Constanza, but wrote songs for Aloysia's soprano voice. This one was more demanding in trills and higher notes, but Carolyn gave them them their own eloquence.

Thus refreshed, we were ready to enjoy Gustav Mahler's fourth symphony. Mahler's a favourite of mine so I looked forward to this. He lived 51 years to 1911, over a hundred years after Haydn. Yet somehow there were similarities in their exuberant motifs. As Mahler famously said: "The Symphony is a World."

Repetitive notes from flutes fortified by little sleigh bells start the piece; flutes and strings develop the joyous theme that gives the work its tunefulness. Now we've got the the full orchestra - complete percussion plus three more double bass - and an enormous harp. Hard to pick out sometimes, but the harp added romance to the scene. Trumpets, French horns, flutes, oboes, cors anglaise clarinets, bassoons. They all had their moments. Wonderful.

So the opening theme repeats towards the end of the fourth movement to herald once again Carolyn to the stage for the emotive song:

"We lead angelic lives …. We dance and we spring. We skip and we sing. St Peter in Heaven looks on."

As it ended, the audience clapped and shouted appreciation. They loved it, and so did I.

Future concerts this year: 10 December at St Luke's Church, Queens Park: Dickens's A Christmas Carol, with narration, BPO's brass quintet and Joanna MacGregor. 31 December, Dome; New Year's Eve Viennese Gala. Tickets 01273 709709, or online.

Carolyn Sampson, soprano