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The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BBCSO/Ollikainen review – Stravinsky's sacrificial dance had serrated edges
A clarinet solo line carved, firm and fierce, out of the heatwave stuffiness. Twitches and rustles from the huge array of percussion. A bigger picture emerges, anchored by the deep throb of low brass. Bitonal parps cut through like car horns in gridlock. A century after its premiere, Edgard Varèse's Intégrales remains a beguiling listen – particularly in a performance as coolly loose-limbed as the BBC Symphony Orchestra served up under Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen. Standing where the strings would normally be to marshal the piece's sparse wind, brass and percussion, Ollikainen made angular, hyper-efficient gestures. That not-for-show approach persisted throughout – with sonically spectacular results – as each item on the programme demanded an incrementally larger orchestra. The UK premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Before We Fall (Cello Concerto) began with a splash of cymbal and a tutti chord that disintegrated rapidly into tapping and sliding out of which soloist Johannes Moser soared, all generous vibrato and lyrical warmth. As with so many of Thorvaldsdottir's scores, the concerto has an elemental, immersive quality, its symphonic textures seeming at times to breath as if a living organism. Elsewhere, the orchestra was in danger of swallowing Moser's detailed passagework whole. Occasionally, the entire ensemble clicked briefly into tonal harmony – a remarkable, luminous effect. After the interval: Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was performed with breathtaking clarity. The coordination was absolutely taut across the now-vast orchestra, the piece's sudden cut-offs of phrases and ideas brutal, Ollikainen maintaining a knife-edge balance between effortful, friction-heavy string playing and woodwind solos that might hail from another planet. The piece's tension between the mellow and the murderous, the natural and the machinic, felt genuinely high stakes: this sacrificial dance had serrated edges, every detail terrifying in its lucidity, its momentum intoxicating. The Rite's power was only increased by a cool-as-ice performance of Ravel's Boléro (earworm to end all earworms) at the end of the first half. Ollikainen's air of detachment came into its own here, holding back the tremendous power of Ravel's 13-minute crescendo until the very last minute so that the looping melody's final crash to earth came as a full-on orchestral catastrophe. Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September.
The Guardian
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BBCSO/Lintu review – there's a good reason these Boulez and Mahler works aren't often performed
In an age of hand-wringing over supposedly populist programming on BBC Radio 3 and in a Proms season packed with obvious crowd-pleasers, this BBC Symphony Orchestra concert seemed designed for the diehards. On the one hand: the Mahlerians, drawn by the rare opportunity to hear the composer's long, early cantata Das klagende Lied, a 'concert folk tale' based on a text he penned aged 17, in the original version he completed at 20. On the other: the Boulezians – better catered for than usual in his centenary year – who thronged for his Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna, performed by the same orchestra who premiered it, with Boulez conducting, in 1975. The fact that Boulez also conducted the first Proms performance of Mahler's Das klagende Lied (again with the BBCSO) in 1976 presumably encouraged this Prom's pairing of works. But the juxtaposition did these pieces few favours. In the first half, a slimmed-down BBCSO revelled in Boulez's analogue spatial audio effects. Rattles were exchanged on snare drums, cymbals and güiros, like enormous snakes facing off across the Royal Albert Hall. There were flurries of chirruping woodwind and abrupt, abrasive cadences, snatched into silence by conductor Hannu Lintu, who stood almost motionless except for swift, absolutely economical gestures. Gongs and tam-tams hung on a vast rack were played by two percussionists, two beaters each, their slow dance amid so much metalwork strangely compelling. But the work's fragmentary nature and peculiar form made for a long half hour. Mahler's cantata felt longer still. His score offers glimpses of the mature composer to come: surges of symphonic power, natty rhythmic corners, beautiful chiaroscuro effects. But there are also numerous less persuasive turns of phrase. His teenaged pseudo-folk tale meanders repetitively and his text-setting poses real challenges for the solo singers. The adults – Natalya Romaniw, Jennifer Johnston, Russell Thomas and James Newby – fared better here than the two heftily miked boy choristers, but there were nevertheless balance problems throughout. The BBC Symphony Chorus and Constanza Chorus injected warmth and vigour and much of the orchestral playing was a deluxe, Mahler-in-HD affair. But not even that, alas, could save the piece from itself. Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September
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Evening Standard
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
First Night of the Proms review: 'who thought this was a good idea?'
The text is mostly from the Book of Revelation and the ethos is highly spiritual. I'm not sure how much of the detail could have been picked up by audience members without programmes. But the rarefied sense of it was well transmitted by the singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo's empathetic baton. Gerald Finley was the expressive baritone soloist. But the show was stolen by the tenor Caspar Singh materialising next to the organ console for the briefest of solos right at the end. 'Behold I come quickly', he sang, and very beautifully. He went quickly too: after forty seconds by my count. Nice work if you can get it. I just hope, for his sake, his fee wasn't pro rata.
Spectator
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The BBC's mistreatment of the Proms
The Proms – the BBC Proms, to stick a handle on its jug – remains a good deed in a naughty world. Eight weeks of orchestral music, mainly, performed nightly at the Royal Albert Hall by artists from every continent, for as little as £8 if you are prepared to stand. One of those artists, the Georgian fiddler Lisa Batiashvili, supplied the highlight of this year's 'first night' with a mighty performance of the Sibelius concerto. The concert ended with Sancta Civitas, a rarely heard choral work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed with love by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor, Sakari Oramo. Musically, it was a good start, despite the tiresome clapping between movements of the Sibelius. So why did the occasion, carried live on BBC2, fall flat? For the same reason that so many televised events do. It was presented as a compound of sporting event and talent show, designed to titillate adolescents who might feel 'excluded' by anything formal. You had to feel a tinge of sympathy for the presenters. Petroc Trelawny has one of radio's most pleasing voices, and Georgia Mann is a bright lady. Both love music. Here, though, they were following instructions laid down from above: make it groovy! There was much joshing and gurning, and as the evening wore on, Mann ignored her Ts and lurched into 'Mockney George' territory. There was also a comedian on hand, one Nick Mohammed, who said nothing funny, nor offered an observation that might not have been said with more brevity by a Prommer plucked from the queue. But he said 'staggering' four times, to go with 'phenomenal' and 'surreal', so he served his purpose. Trelawny gave the game away in his introduction, referring to the 'crowd' that had gathered inside the hall. Sporting events have crowds. Concerts have audiences. It's an important distinction, because language establishes tone. Nor was it wise for Trelawny to invoke 'a sense of democracy'. The Proms is a musical festival, open to all, not a rally for zealots. This year, for unfathomable reasons, they have decided to go backstage before and during Proms, in search of 'colour'. The man selected for this absurd exercise was Linton Stephens, whose banal questions, read from a crib sheet, would have shamed a six-year-old. 'What's it like to perform this epic work?' he asked Batiashvili, who responded with admirable tolerance. Other questions followed, to baffled choristers preparing for the Vaughan Williams: 'What's it like performing at the Proms?' 'What does it mean to you?' 'What's going through your head?' 'What does your family think of you performing at the Proms?' Drivel like this wouldn't be acceptable at a lower league football match. At the Proms it was excruciating. Suzy Klein, the corporation's head of arts and classical music, must know this sort of rubbish is strictly for amateur hour. Get rid. A living composer was brought on to freshen the bloom in the second half. Errollyn Wallen is Master of the King's Music and, in Mann's estimation, 'a Proms trailblazer'. The trail she blazed here was a ten-minute piece called The Elements, written for the occasion, and it sounded pretty thin. The lady wore dazzling yellow specs, though. What's to come later this season? The Traitors Prom, of course, and another CBeebies entertainment. They've cleared the decks for Star Wars, 'Soul Revolution', a Classic Thriller Soundtracks evening (which sounds promising), and Anoushka Shankar and her wretched sitar. This is not traditional Proms territory, and there's a reason for it. The BBC, obsessed with cultural identity, is embarrassed by the undeniable fact that orchestral music has been composed over the past four centuries by white men. In our world, where 'diversity' is the thing, that great tradition makes people uneasy. Hence the desire to introduce new features that have less to do with quality than the fulfilment of quotas. That way the clever producer clambers up the greasy pole. So here are a few ideas for Klein and her band of groovers to consider: a brass band Prom; a Fred Astaire tribute; a flamenco evening; a return for Roby Lakatos, the great Magyar gypsy fiddler; a George Formby night; a bubblegum pop spectacular; and a gathering of Nordic jazzers. There have been enough Soul Revolutions of various sorts in recent years, though it should be said the Northern Soul two years back night worked. A rare triumph. Carry on, Petroc and Georgia. But remember, to thine own selves be true. And please, no comedians.
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
First night of the Proms review – Batiashvili's magnificent Sibelius opens the festival
This year's Proms began with a curiously uneven concert. The programme, conducted by Sakari Oramo with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, felt oddly disparate. The main works were the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist, and Vaughan Williams's oratorio Sancta Civitas, a comparative rarity. There was new music, too, the world premiere of The Elements by Errollyn Wallen, Master of the King's Music. Oramo opened, however, with Arthur Bliss's Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood, before segueing, without pause, into Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, the latter most beautifully done, with finely focussed strings and woodwind, but something of a jolt after Bliss's jaunty little piece for brass and timpani in honour of the Proms' founder. Wallen's new work, meanwhile, didn't feel entirely successful. The Proms Guide argues that it explores the 'periodic table of orchestral elements' that form the basis of composition, though Wallen writes, in her own programme note, that its prime concern is 'the fundamentals of music, life and love.' It's cast in a single-three section movement, the first dark and gritty, the second poised, elegant and sounding like Ravel, the third ringing changes on music from Purcell's The Fairy Queen. But it never coheres, and the Purcell quotes just leave you longing for the original. The Sibelius, however, was unquestionably magnificent. Oramo conducted Batiashvili's first ever performance of the concerto when she was 16, they've given it together many times together since, and you really sense the almost instinctive give and take that comes from a fine collaboration. Though technically astonishing, Batiashvili never sounded showy, and the big first movement cadenza was all about musical logic rather than display. Oramo – always wonderful in Sibelius – gave us understated drama and intensity in the first two movements, before releasing the edgy mood into the exhilaration of the finale. Vaughan Williams's choral depiction of the Holy City as described in the Book of Revelation, meanwhile, has never struck me as the masterpiece that some claim it to be, though you couldn't fault the fervour or grandeur of Oramo's interpretation. The choral singing – from the combined forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers and members of London Youth Choirs – was all fierce exaltation and rapture. Gerald Finley was the visionary baritone, Caspar Singh the excellent tenor, making much of the precious little Vaughan Williams gives him. Watch on BBC iPlayer, or listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September.
