Classical Music reviews, news & interviews
Prom 6, Verdi's Requiem, BBCNOW, Bancroft review - running the emotional gamut
Wednesday, 24 July 2024![Latonia Moore, Karen Cargill, Ryan Bancroft, SeokJong Baek, Soloman Howard and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/first_and_second_tier/public/mastimages/Prom%20Verdi%202.jpg?itok=GTyZbbfI)
Returning after ten months to the unique vasts of Albert’s colosseum, especially for a Verdi Requiem as powerful as this and a packed hall, felt like a rebirth. There was immediate purging in the focused whispers of the first “Requiem aeternam”s, BBC National Orchestra of Wales Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft instilling a confidence you knew would last the evening, and instant thrills in the clarion “Kyrie”s of all four world-class soloists.
- Comment
Prom 5, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bancroft review - a luxury orchestral cruise
Tuesday, 23 July 2024![Prosperous voyages: Ryan Bancroft and the BBC NOW](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/first_and_second_tier/public/mastimages/NOW%20RB3.jpg?itok=5lF6gV8b)
This looked like a classic Prom in the grand old BBC tradition: two big but lesser-known pieces by pivotal figures (Schoenberg and Zemlinsky) played by a major non-metropolitan ensemble, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. And so it proved, with powerful, refined and meatily satisfying versions of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pelleas and Melisande and Alexander von Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid conducted by the NOW’s chief, Ryan Bancroft.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
Footnote: a brief history of classical music in Britain
London has more world-famous symphony orchestras than any other city in the world, the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra vying with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Opera House Orchestra, crack "period", chamber and contemporary orchestras. The bursting schedules of concerts at the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Centre and South Bank Centre, and the strength of music in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Cardiff, among other cities, show a depth and internationalism reflecting the development of the British classical tradition as European, but with specific slants of its own.
brittenWhile Renaissance monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I took a lively interest in musical entertainment, this did not prevent outstanding English composers such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd developing the use of massed choral voices to stirring effect. Arguably the vocal tradition became British music's glory, boosted by the arrival of Handel as a London resident in 1710. For the next 35 years he generated booms in opera, choral and instrumental playing, and London attracted a wealth of major European composers, Mozart, Chopin and Mahler among them.
The Victorian era saw a proliferation of classical music organisations, beginning with the Philharmonic Society, 1813, and the Royal Academy of Music, 1822, both keenly promoting Beethoven's music. The Royal Albert Hall and the Queen's Hall were key new concert halls, and Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh established major orchestras. Edward Elgar was chief of a raft of English late-Victorian composers; a boom-time which saw the Proms launched in 1895 by Sir Henry Wood, and a rapid increase in conservatoires and orchestras. The "pastoral" English classical style arose, typified by Vaughan Williams, and the new BBC took over the Proms in 1931, founding its own broadcasting orchestra and classical radio station (now Radio 3).
England at last produced a world giant in Benjamin Britten (pictured above), whose protean range spearheaded the postwar establishment of national arts institutions, resulting notably in English National Opera, the Royal Opera and the Aldeburgh Festival. The Arts Desk writers provide a uniquely rich coverage of classical concerts, with overnight reviews and indepth interviews with major performers and composers, from Britain and abroad. Writers include Igor Toronyi-Lalic, David Nice, Edward Seckerson, Alexandra Coghlan, Graham Rickson, Stephen Walsh and Ismene Brown
inside classical music
latest in today
![Mid-life crisis: Natalie Portman as Maddie Schwartz](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Natalie%20MAIN.jpg?itok=IbhoIU1e)
Laura Lippman’s source novel for Apple’s new drama became a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2019, and director Alma Har’el’s...
![A break in the clouds for Glen Powell as Tyler Owens and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate Cooper](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Glen%20%26%20Daisy.jpg?itok=zmHD64Ru)
“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” urged King Lear, accompanied by the Fool, on the blasted heath. But that’s not quite snappy enough for the...
![Monse, a keen bareback rider, with her horse in 'The Echo'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/EL%20ECO_Still_1%20copy.jpg?itok=-Heu9dmB)
El Eco (The Echo) is a small village in Mexico’s central...
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/896350.jpg?itok=6_LblfjO)
In a discussion recently a friend compared generative...
![Uphill struggle: Deniz Celilolglu as Samet, Musab Ekici as Kenan and Merve Dizdar as Nuray](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/LesHerbesSeches_Stills02A%CC%82%C2%A9NuriBilgeCeylan.jpg?itok=tILsz9d3)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest is a test of stamina: a 3hr 15min study of a man paralysed...
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/strangenesse1.jpg?itok=XXcoA2Yu)
Something of a jazz supergroup this one: with drum virtuoso, the...
![Latonia Moore, Karen Cargill, Ryan Bancroft, SeokJong Baek, Soloman Howard and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Prom%20Verdi%202.jpg?itok=YZoGmn17)
Returning after ten months to the unique vasts of Albert’s colosseum, especially for a Verdi Requiem as powerful as this and a packed hall, felt...
![As ever, looking the part](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Screenshot%202024-07-22%20201257.png?itok=2zJqbqUe)
Dave Clarke (b. 1968) is, arguably, Britain’s greatest techno...
![The maestro composes: Constantine Akritides as Puccini](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Web-TheButterflyHouse-Credit-SteveGregson-132%20%281200x800%29.jpg?itok=vm22KyxW)
For 50 years Clonter Opera, the song-on-the-farm project in rural Cheshire, has been encouraging would-be...
![The Very Things GXL: still weird and wonderful](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Very%20Things_Mr%20Arc%20Eye%20album%20front%203000px-sq.jpg?itok=N5yzSnSf)
Back in the mid-80s, a group of lads from Worcestershire, who’d previously been known as the Cravats, were putting an exceedingly strange spin on...
most read
![Lucie Shorthouse as DC Siobhan Clarke, with Richard Rankin in BBC One's 'Rebus'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Lucie%20MAIN.jpg?itok=l-pDnfcg)
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/s-l1600.jpg?itok=eRCBoyH8)
![Sofie Gråbøl plays Inger, a middle-aged woman with schizophrenia who lives in a care home](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/rose1-fwpl-superJumbo.jpg?itok=LV2HDLhd)
![Children’s Game #40: Chivichanas, La Habana, Cuba, 2023 by Francis Alÿs](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Frances%20Chivichanas.jpg?itok=i_Y4i1U4)
![Nardus Williams and Elizabeth Kenny in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, visible to a fortunate few](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/tj6WvCZ7.jpeg?itok=eZE5y4Ln)
![Pleasing but familiar: Imagine Dragons sixth album 'Loom'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Imagine%20dragons%20loom.jpg?itok=DipgP3A3)
![Bethany Horak-Hallett's vivid Cherubino gets close to Samantha Clarke's peereless Countess](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Figaro-Website-Gallery-4.jpg?itok=g0_-fr3Z)
![In the pink: Mean Girls Elèna Gyasi, Georgina Castle and Grace Mouat](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/2.%20Charlie%20Burn%20%28Cady%29%2C%20Ele%CC%80na%20Gyasi%20%28Gretchen%29%2C%20Georgina%20Castle%20%28Regina%29%2C%20Grace%20Mouat%20%28Karen%29%20and%20Elena%20Skye%20%28Janis%29.%20CREDIT%20Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.jpg?itok=9V15uqsd)
![Live in 1974, Cluster exhibit their low-key approach to stagecraft. What is the brush for?](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Cluster_Live%201974_header_1000.jpg?itok=KzE4mkdM)
![Sucking up to the boss. Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe in 'Kinds of Kindness'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/KOK%201.jpg?itok=2nvB-o7W)
!['A musical sophisticate'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/CS1021466-01A-BIG.jpg?itok=LfSOmSjX)