Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 28 October

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been associated with Eastbourne for over eighty years now, and their regular seasons at Glyndebourne have kept the relationship even closer. If two thirds of the programme was very familiar, the central concerto was not and proved to be the most interesting item. Saint-Saens’ Second Cello Concerto was the last of his ten concerti and one of the most demanding. The cellist is faced with double-stopping from the start and there are some fiendishly difficult passages.

None of this seemed to worry soloist Jamie Walton who brought genuine lyricism to the Andante sostenuto and fire to his extended cadenza. The work makes its way from an introverted D minor to a blaze in D major. It was very enthusiastically received and one hopes we might hear it more often.

The afternoon had not opened with this level of enthusiasm. The performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was accurate but sleepy, with little sense of life or warmth. Thankfully the concerto seemed to have woken everybody up and the performance of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony after the interval was finely paced and brought well moulded changes of mood. Climaxes were well built in the Adagio, and there was an excellent flute obbligato in the Allegretto. The cello section had shone throughout, even in the Tchaikovsky, and came into its own in the final movement of the Dvorak with a warm, romantic line for the main theme.

Michael Seal, a regular conductor with the CBSO, was making his debut with the LPO this afternoon and showed increasing confidence as the performance progressed. BH

The next concert in the series is on 9 December with works by Brahms, Mozart and Bruckner  eastbournetheatres.co.uk  01323 412000