Latest news with #BBCSymphonyOrchestra
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BBCSO/Elder review – like a Klimt painting in sound
Conducted by Mark Elder, the final concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's season opened with Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony, a work we don't hear as often as we might, though it is a thing of often extraordinary beauty, sensual yet elusive, its sound world to some extent like no other. Dating from 1916 and written for 24 solo players, it is cast in the form of a ceaselessly evolving single movement, though its four sections echo and approximate conventional symphonic structure. Strauss and early Schoenberg lurk behind the scoring, which has an ornate, jewelled glamour, sometimes described as being like a Klimt painting in sound. Elder, clearly fond of it, lingered, sometimes a bit too much, over its sensuous textures, teasing them out with exquisite finesse and eliciting some gorgeous playing from the BBCSO in the process. The same attention to textural detail characterised the performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde that followed after the interval, an interpretation of unsparing intensity, magnificently controlled. Speeds were carefully calibrated, and Elder's slightly slower than usual tempo for Von der Jugend captured a poignant nostalgia behind the surface elegance, while the almost reckless momentum for the horsemen in Von der Schönheit immeasurably heightened the sense of yearning their appearance provokes. The sheer weight of orchestral sound was electrifying at the start and the ending immaculate in its reflective beauty. Elsewhere instrumental solos, played with exceptional refinement, seemed to call and echo across open spaces and voids, heartbreaking and desolate. Alice Coote and David Butt Philip were the soloists. Coote's voice has lost some of its opulence of late, and a hint of metal occasionally creeps into her upper registers. Her artistry remains intact, however, and she has always been superb in this work, slightly declamatory in her delivery, words and emotions deeply felt, yet etched with restraint and great dynamic subtlety. Butt Phillip, meanwhile, was simply revelatory, tackling some of the most demanding music ever written for tenor with astonishing ease, ringing fullness of tone and verbal clarity, even in the most implacable high-lying passages, all of it balanced with soft singing of immaculate warmth and sensitivity – a truly outstanding achievement in a very fine concert. Broadcast on Radio 3 on 27 May then available on BBC Sounds for 30 days.
Express Tribune
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Grammy winner Arooj Aftab is set to take over BBC Proms
Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab is set to make her BBC Proms debut this summer in a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. The concert, scheduled for July 29, will feature orchestral arrangements of music from across Aftab's discography, including selections from her albums Bird Under Water (2015), Vulture Prince (2021), and Night Reign (2024). Aftab announced the concert on Instagram on Tuesday, inviting fans to join her for the event: "Listen, you have to come to BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with me. Get tickets without thinking. We will present selected tunes, the good sh*t from Bird, Vulture Prince and Night. The great Ibrahim Maalouf will be there with his own full set the same day. I am beyond crazed for this one, and so proud and ecstatic to share this iconic experience with you." The performance will be conducted by Jules Buckley, known for his work bridging contemporary music and classical performance. The BBC Symphony Orchestra will provide the symphonic foundation for Aftab's genre-defying sound, which blends jazz, folk, blues, and South Asian classical influences. Aftab will be joined on stage by her longtime collaborators: Greek bassist Petros Klampanis and American guitarist Gyan Riley. Also appearing is celebrated French-Lebanese trumpeter Maalouf, who will perform his own solo set before joining Aftab's ensemble. Known for his eclectic sound combining Latin American, Middle Eastern, and electronic influences, Maalouf describes music as "limitless", a sentiment echoed in the cross-genre spirit of the evening's lineup. The Royal Albert Hall's official programme describes Aftab as "breaking new ground with her captivating, eclectic melting-pot of influences." Her Proms debut promises a new dimension to her work, reinterpreted through full symphonic arrangements. The July 29 performance is part of the wider 2025 Proms season, which includes 86 concerts across venues in London, Gateshead, Bristol, Bradford, Belfast, and Sunderland. Also confirmed for this year's edition are performances by St Vincent, Angelique Kidjo, and one-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy. Aftab's appearance at the Proms marks a significant milestone in her expanding international career, offering audiences a rare opportunity to hear her signature sound on an orchestral scale. Tickets are currently available via the Royal Albert Hall website.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Council to spend £2.5m updating listed music venue
A council is to spend £2.5m on refurbishing a historic music venue for its first upgrade in 30 years. The Grade II listed Bedford Corn Exchange dates back to 1874 and was used as base for the BBC Symphony Orchestra during World War Two. Band leader Glenn Miller's performances were broadcast from the venue between July and August 1944, shortly before his flight mysteriously disappeared over the Channel. The refurbishment will include upgraded lighting and sound systems, new paintwork and modernised toilets. There will also be flooring improvements, new seating and outdated and broken appliances in the venue's kitchen will be replaced. Work is scheduled to begin in early 2026 and complete in March 2027. The council said the refurbishment project will take place over the next two financial years. Bedford Corn Exchange hosts a range of entertainment including music, comedy and theatre. During the 1940s it attracted big names in entertainment such as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Humphrey Bogart. Sarah Gallagher, portfolio holder for leisure, culture and customer experience at Bedford Borough Council, said: "This refurbishment is much more than just maintenance, it's a forward-thinking investment in Bedford's cultural heart. "By modernising the Corn Exchange, we are not only preserving an important historic venue but also enhancing the experience for local residents, visitors and businesses. "These improvements will support a diverse range of events, attract new audiences, and celebrate the rich heritage of Bedford." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. What happened to Glenn Miller? The 80-year mystery Town gets in the mood for Glenn Miller memorial Video of flooded theatre posted online by comedian Venue that hosted Glenn Miller earns listed status Bedford Borough Council
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mini masterpieces: why Mahler's songs are marvels to rank alongside his symphonies
No orchestral season today is complete without a Mahler symphony. Three of them featured at last year's BBC Proms, this year there'll be four. Over a recent weekend in London, you could hear the first with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican on a Friday and the following evening enjoy the epic glories of the eighth with the London Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall. Conductors from Boulez to Bernstein and Chailly to Rattle all have Mahler symphony cycles in their recorded catalogues. And this month the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam hosts a grand Mahler festival. Across 10 days all his symphonies will be performed by world-famous orchestras and conductors, his unfinished 10th among them and also his 'vocal symphony', Das Lied von der Erde. 'A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything,' the composer famously said. But what of Mahler the miniaturist, the master of that most intimate and personal musical form, the song for voice and piano? While the gigantic symphonies rage in the great hall, Mahler's complete songs will be heard in the Concertgebouw's exquisite sister hall, the Kleine Saal. I will be playing them all at the piano, with 10 outstanding young singers across five concerts, including one programme devoted to the songs of his extraordinary wife, Alma Mahler. They may be less all-encompassing than the famous symphonies, but Mahler's songs are miniature masterpieces, ranking alongside the greatest by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf. They are marvels: songs as expressive and finely crafted as the famous symphonies are visceral and overwhelming. Song composers tend to be pianists. Sometimes they are brilliant virtuosos such as Brahms, or failed virtuosos such as Schumann, or simply not virtuosos at all, such as Schubert, but all essentially write their songs from the perspective of their beloved piano. As a student at the Vienna Conservatoire, Mahler won prizes for his piano playing and it is clear that the instrument was an essential means for his own musical expression. All of his 50 or so songs have beautifully written piano parts. Many of them, Mahler later rewrote for voice and full orchestra, and these have become so famous in their gloriously colourful and sumptuous orchestrations that sometimes the original version with piano is left in the shade, the overlooked sister. Unlike Schumann, Schubert or Brahms, Mahler wasn't forever searching for musical inspiration in volumes of poetry. Indeed, his very earliest songs were often settings of his own texts, including the miraculous short song cycle, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). But his greatest resource for song inspiration was the collection of folk poetry compiled in the early 19th century by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn). When Mahler when was 32 and already celebrated as a conductor, he published his first song settings – 10 poems from Des Knaben Wunderhornfor voice and piano. Surprisingly, these included just one song of love and longing - the inspiration, then as now, for the most songs – while the rest were a mixture of high-spirited 'character' ballads and songs that celebrated the beauty and joy of nature. Another kind of text made its first appearance in this collection also, one that was to inspire Mahler throughout his life: the poem set in, or around, the military barracks. Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz (At Strasbourg on the ramparts) is haunting, and the precursor for the dramatic marches that found their way later into his third and sixth symphonies. At the turn of the century, Mahler turned again to Das Knaben Wunderhorn for inspiration for 15 more songs for voice and piano, but this time he also made versions of them all for voice and orchestra (which continued to be his practice from this point on). The songs he was writing for voice and piano were inextricably linked to the symphonies that were also germinating in his mind. One of the early songs from Songs of a Wayfarer, for instance, was incorporated into his firstsymphony. In his second, third and fourth symphonies, singers join the orchestra and songs that he had already set from Des Knaben Wunderhorn for voice and piano were incorporated into the bigger orchestral works. Urlicht (Primal Light) and Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt (St Anthony preaches to the fish) both feature in the second symphony, and Es sungen drei Engel (Three Angels sang) and Ablösung im Sommer (The changing of the summer guard) in the third. The divine Das himmlische Leben (The heavenly life) is orchestrated as the last movement of the fourth symphony. These first four symphonies have since become known as the 'Wunderhorn Symphonies'. In February of 1901 Mahler suffered a haemorrhage that required emergency treatment and a period of recuperation. He spent those weeks at a villa near Maiernigg, on the Wörthersee, and it seems likely that it was here that he first read the poetry of Friedrich Rückert. The German poet's verses were to inspire some of Mahler's greatest music, including the celebrated Ruckert-Lieder. The exquisite delicacy of the vocal and piano writing in Ich atmet' einen linden Duft (I breathed a gentle fragrance) and Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty) and the searing intensity of Um Mitternacht (At Midnight) are overwhelming. In Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world) Mahler takes us to a place of utter peace where life's pain can no longer touch us, a vision of another world that has rarely been matched. By now, Mahler was the father of two daughters, and the poems that Rückert wrote after the death of his own children from scarlet fever profoundly moved him. Of the hundreds of poems written by Rückert to exorcise his grief, Mahler chose five for his song cycle for voice and piano, Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the death of children). The depth of the pain and loss that they express is devastating. Later orchestrated, for me they are his greatest achievement in song. Mahler's final songs were incorporated in Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth), which he called his 'vocal symphony'. Mahler always intended this work, written between 1908 and 1909 at a time of intense personal crisis, to be for two voices and full orchestra. He wouldn't call the work his ninth Symphony out of superstition – Beethoven, Schubert, and more recently Bruckner and Dvořák had not lived long enough to write their respective 10th symphonies and Mahler, who had just completed his eighth, was painfully aware that his health was failing. Later, after he had completed Das Lied von der Erde, he started work on his ninth symphony and reassured Alma that it was in truth his 10th, and that the danger was past. Not so, sadly. When he died in 1911 of heart failure, he left his incomplete 10th symphony. The poems that inspired Mahler to write Das Lied von der Erde were from Die chinesische Flöte, versions by Hans Bethge of ancient Chinese poetry. They captivated him with their simple, timeless quality. Only recently it was discovered that Mahler also wrote a version for two voices and piano but in this one case we don't know whether the piano version came before or after the orchestrated version. My own feeling, having played and studied the work at the piano, is that he wrote the orchestral version first – the piano version doesn't have the same finesse or pianistic accomplishment of his other songs. Nevertheless, it is an enormous privilege to have Mahler's own version for piano and voices of this seminal masterpiece, considered by many his greatest work. I have spent 40 years studying and playing these songs and, unlike me alas, they never age. They range wide, from comic songs to serious metaphysical meditations, from touching and heartfelt love songs to sublime reflections on life's meaning, and from simple folksong-like miniatures to entire song cycles. Along the way, I have felt Mahler the pianist by my side, encouraging me to find the endless colours and subtlety in his piano writing, and to give these wonderful songs life. The Mahler festival 2025 takes place in and around the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, from 8 to 18 May. Many events will be broadcast worldwide on the radio. Details here.
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo review – Carwithen comes in from the cold
Doreen Carwithen's concerto for piano and strings is emerging blinking into the light from half a century of oblivion, and one suspects that the return to life has further to go. Premiered at the 1952 Proms, when it was the only music by any female composer that season, the concerto languished until after Carwithen's death in 2003. Now the 30-minute piece has been recorded twice, received its German premiere last month, and, in the latest step in its reawakening, was the centrepiece of the latest Barbican Hall concert by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Carwithen's champions, who include the soloist in both this and the German performances, Alexandra Dariescu, make large claims for concerto and composer alike. Despite Dariescu's unstinting performance, however, Carwithen's piece does not entirely justify them. The concerto is accomplished for sure, with neatly crafted moods veering between late romantic and neo-classical, but more is hinted at than is achieved, even in the intimacy between the piano and a solo violin in the slow movement. The closest the concerto comes to a crux or a moment of revelation is in the thundering solo cadenza in the final movement. It took only a few bars of Malcolm Arnold's fifth symphony, which took up the second half of the concert, to encounter the colour and incisiveness missing from the Carwithen. Arnold's writing memorialises four friends who had all recently died when the symphony was written in 1961. There is undoubtedly darkness in the scoring but, for the most part, the symphony brims with contrast and confidence. There is a serenity in the slow movement and a jauntiness in the two that follow that make a strong case for treating this as Arnold's most successful orchestral work. Oramo has long been a committed advocate of it, which this performance confirmed, and he brandished the score for its own round of applause at the end. Right at the start of the evening, the BBC Singers joined Oramo and the orchestra for a ravishing performance of Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music . The setting of part of the scene between Lorenzo and Jessica in act five of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is one of Vaughan Williams' most transcendent achievements. In today's grim times it poured even more balm than usual into the soul.
