Philharmonia Orchestra, Roderick Cox (USA) conductor. Beethoven, Triple Concerto with Trio Isimsiz – Pablo Hernán Benedi (violin, Spain), Michael Petrov (cello, Bulgaria), Erdem Misirlioglu (piano, England). Tippett, A Child of Our Time, with soloists Gweneth Ann Rand (sop, USA), Ronnita Miller (mezzo, USA), Noah Stewart (tenor, USA), Jonatham Lemalu (bass baritone, NZ), and Brighton Festival Chorus, music director James Morgan.The Brighton Festival closing concert is by definition ‘The Big One’. But this was bigger. No standard blockbuster classical works conducted by a lately more rotund, middle-aged established celebrity conductor, nor anything outlandishly adventurous breaking the mould. No, this one made a different statement. Of quality of thought, intent and reflection on our current world, at home and abroad, instead of merely a safe, grand parting gesture of nobility, dignity or star quality. The decision to perform Michael Tippett’s celebrated British wartime oratorio A Child of Our Time, with its subtly powerful pacifist’s outcry against racism, fascism, bigotry and xenophiobia at such a febrile time in home and European politics, was potently relevant enough.But then to cast the conductor and all four vocal soloists as not only non-British but three African-Americans and a Maori appears a decision of insightful brilliance. A…