What a difference an election can make. There is a new atmosphere at the BBC Proms this year, one of tentative hope and, yes, relief. With the divisive culture wars over and the license fee declared safe, there must have been lighter hearts in the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on the first night. They were joined by the BBC Singers, the ensemble most celebrated after their threatened exit last year was a symbol of the previous government’s harsh hostility to the arts in the UK.
No wonder Bruckner shouted “Hallelujah!” in his version Psalm 150 came over i Prom 1 with such force, the conductor Elim Chan pumped up the volume to a maximum. But this was just a prelude to the big surprise of the evening, Ben Nobuto Hallelujah Sim, A highly entertaining “step-by-step tutorial” for choir and orchestra, structured like a video game and due to premiere, ironically, on the day Microsoft systems were crashing around the world.
A synthetic voice guides the performers to complete four levels of hallelujah, each with its own challenges (sing in parts, now together, sing faster, sing slower, shuffle syllables, sing backwards), while the orchestra plays a cartoon accompaniment crazy. Nobuto (b.1996) believes that we live in an internet-saturated age, and this takes traditional elements of music and gives them a 21st century digital polish, resulting in something shiny, brilliantly clever – and funny. It must have been a nightmare to rehearse, so credit goes to chorus master Neil Ferris, and Chan, who held it all together. The audience loved it, which can’t always be said of a new piece at the Proms.
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason (who was last week lobbying parliament for better music provision in schools) made an impressive solo debut last year with Prokofiev’s third piano concerto, which was a huge success at the Prommers instantly. This year, as a champion of female composers, she performed Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a work she recorded for the first time in 2019 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Critics then raved about her bold performances, a quality she replicated last week. Clara Wieck was only 13 when she started composing this piece and it is clear that she was already a great pianist. Kanneh-Mason brought real authority to this display of teenage fireworks, but perhaps the highlight was her beautiful duet with principal accompanist Louisa Tuck in the elegant central movement.
We all think we know Beethoven’s fifth Symphony, but under Chan it took on a new life, with revealing details, emphasized melodies, sharply defined rhythms. There is an ever-increasing sense of fun running through the work, but here he pointed towards the final allegro with dramatic purpose. An exciting end to a memorable evening.
Manchester’s orchestral treasure, the Hallé, reached a milestone last week when its music director, Mark Elder, will conduct the final Prom after 25 years at the helm (Prom 4). As with his Manchester farewell concerts, Elder wanted every aspect of the Hallé to be part of this Prom – the orchestra, the adult choir, the youth choir and the excellent children’s choir. This made an impressive wall of choral sound in a verse version of Dryden, James MacMillan, Timothy, Bacchus and Cecilia, but due to the unintended consequence of emphasizing that the younger voices were more at ease than their older counterparts, the grown sopranos often struggle with McMahon’s demanding masterpiece. Although very welcome, this is a strange, uneven work, its most convincing passages reserved for Dryden’s portrayal of the transformative power of music.
Mahler’s fifth symphony was a perfect choice for Elder to showcase the rich talent in every part of the orchestra he has built over the past quarter century: slender strings, taut brass, nimble woodwinds. This long journey from funereal darkness to an uncertain and triumphant light was enchanted, the famous adagietto for harp and strings, Mahler’s love song to his future wife, Alma Schindler, was considered beautiful, never before slipping into sentimentality, which Elder hates anyway, as he said. the audience in his comments intact. He focused on his players and the future, the Proms (he was a teenager once) and live music: “Something we all want, maybe never had before.” Amen to that.
Schindler’s name came up again in an interesting, albeit poorly attended performance at Prom – a recreation of a concert given in Vienna in 1905, when brothers-in-law Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky composed two highly toned poems. primarily expressive: Schoenberg’s Pelleas and Melisande and Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid (Prom 5). Poor Zemlinsky chose Hans Christian Andersen’s story about the little mermaid, who watched her husband marry someone else, because it matched his own experience – Alma Mahler married whom he was looking forward to. Conductor Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales were very interested in Zemlinsky’s emotional score, which is steeped in supernatural mystery, sometimes bordering on kitsch.
But however radiant and accessible, Zemlinsky’s music does not share Schoenberg’s richly colored depth and complexity. Pillwaterfall, who glowed under Bancroft’s sure guidance. Schoenberg calls for a huge orchestra (nine horns, full brass, 16 woodwinds, two harps, two accordions) and marshals these forces to tell the story of a love triangle that inevitably ends in tragedy. The score is honest, calm and contradictory as it depicts Maeterlinck’s dreamy play, depicting the passions of Pelleas and Melisande and the angry jealousy of the prince who cannot lose Melisande. This ravishing account is sure to be the highlight of the season, and it’s only week one.
Star ratings (out of five)
Prom 1 ★★★★★
Prom 4 ★★★★
Prom 5 ★★★★★