Worbey and Farrell, review: Brighton Dome, March 1

This astonishing piano duo try to emulate a full concert orchestra with four hands and one piano.

Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell met when students at the Royal College of Music in the early 1990s and followed individual careers until coming together to produce their own unique mix of dazzling playing and humorous repartee.

Their first gig was at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, which led to a flood of offers across the world, and they have now performed in more than 120 countries as well as afloat on the QE2 and Queen Mary 2.

A strategically placed camera and large screen enable the audience to see close up the phenomenal dexterity that produces an exciting take on anything they choose to focus upon. At the Dome that included their own arrangements of such eclectic classics as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Addinsell’s iconic Warsaw Concerto. The Gershwin piece took them a year to arrange and when you see and hear these master showmen perform it is easy to see why.

Their reverence for the Steinway piano on which they perform was never remotely understated by them and as Worbey says they like to utilise it to its full potential.

A particular treat for the Dome faithful together with an encouraging mix of children and less senior patrons was the premiere of the duo’s arrangement of Nigel Hess’s Ladies in Lavender.

The current season comes to an end on Sunday, March 29, when the BPO come together in full for the only time when conductor laureate Barry Wordsworth leads them in an unashamedly romantic offering of Elgar’s superb Cello Concerto played by regular visitor, both as soloist and conductor, Thomas Carroll, Tchaikovsky’s Suite No 3 and Glinka’s Valse-Fantaisie.

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