fri 04/10/2024

Proms

Prom 42, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Aurora Orchestra, Collon review - a dramatic coup

Hugh Masekela used to give advice for concerts like this one: “If you haven’t got tickets, turn yourself into a cockroach.” Every seat for Aurora Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Ninth by Heart Prom had already sold out on the first morning when season...

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Prom 40, St John Passion, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki review - finesse and feeling

Bach’s St John Passion came into the world just three centuries ago, in Leipzig at Easter 1724. This year’s Proms shower of manna from musical heaven continued with a consummately polished, sensitive and – ultimately – very moving birthday...

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Prom 37, War Requiem, Clayton, Liverman, Romaniw, LSO, Pappano review - terror and tenderness

This year’s Proms programme initially gave rise to some now-customary sneers about predictability, banality and dumbing down. Well, it all depends on where you sit, and what you hear. And my seats have witnessed one absolute humdinger after another...

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Prom 36, McGill, BBCSSO, New review - summery Shakespearean mummery

My three Proms so far this year have all featured regional BBC orchestras conducted by women, all excellent, and it surely reflects well on the Proms management that they have done so much to address this gender imbalance in recent years. In last...

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Prom 32, Gillam, BBCNOW, Venditti review - belated debuts and a dancing delight

This Prom by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nil Venditti featured a first half of Welsh composers, including the belated Proms debut of Karl Jenkins at the age of 80. It’s a sign of how Proms programming has evolved over the last 30 years...

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Prom 31, Mutter, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim review - beauty against barbarism

Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra first performed at the Proms – to a rapturous welcome – in 2003. For two decades the visits, and the audience rapture, have continued, while the region of most WEDO...

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Prom 30, National Youth Orchestra, NYO Inspire, Bloch, Jackson review - sheer youthful joy, passion and precision

Let’s begin at the end. Can the Paris Olympics' closing ceremony offer anything as classy or joyous as 260 musicians aged 13 to 18 singing the French carol-plus-farandole finale of Bizet’s L'Arlésienne music?* This encore also made Proms history as...

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Prom 26, Feldmann, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier review - two warhorses and a femmage

This was my first Prom of the season – always an exciting moment, even in my fourth decade as an attendee. I was hearing the BBC Philharmonic under its newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, the excellent Anja Bihlmaier, in a programme of two...

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Prom 24, The Fairy Queen, Les Arts Florissants/Le Jardin des Voix, Agnew review - hip-hop hornpipes

“One charming night gives more delight than a hundred lucky days”. So claims one of the gorgeous (and, in this case, risqué) numbers that stud Purcell’s “semi-opera” The Fairy Queen like sequins on a flamboyant party gown.Directed by tenor-turned-...

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Prom 23, Grosvenor, LPO, Gardner review - strange meetings

Not everyone knew what to expect from this fascinating programme. Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, last of his orchestral masterpieces, is nothing like the more familiar aspects of his piano concertos. Nor is Busoni’s nominal attempt at the form,...

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Prom 21, Osborne, Sinfonia of London, Wilson review - a spectacular drive across America

Does John Wilson ever stumble?The Sinfonia of London, the Gateshead-born conductor’s ad hoc all-star super-band, rode into a full-to-bursting Royal Albert Hall once again last night with an all-American Proms programme that promised not just crowd-...

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Prom 19, Rummukainen, Dandy, BBCSO, Oramo review - inward reflections and choral transcendence

How do you get five thousand plus people into the Albert Hall to hear two Sanskrit-based rarities by British-born composers? Simple: place the Elgar Cello Concerto in between them. Here was another daring Prom programme that totally worked, not...

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