Proms
St Matthew Passion, Arcangelo, Cohen, BBC Proms review – journey to the end of nightFriday, 10 September 2021
No disrespect to Sakari Oramo and his colleagues in tomorrow’s farewell jamboree, but I wonder whether this performance should have featured as the Last Night of the Proms. After all its terror, grief and sorrow, the St Matthew Passion ends with... Read more... |
Through hoops and hurdles to sheer joy: BBC Proms Director David Pickard on a season like no otherFriday, 10 September 2021
As anyone who has been trying to steer an arts organisation through the pandemic will tell you, the greatest challenge has been uncertainty; learning to live with the unknown and the unexpected. When we planned this year’s Proms, I would have said... Read more... |
Proms Festival Orchestra, Wigglesworth, BBC Proms review - brilliant work in progress, perfect AdagiettoThursday, 09 September 2021
You don’t expect a great orchestral string section to be born overnight, yet under the circumstances of the Proms Festival Orchestra’s rapid creation and only three rehearsals of three hours each, this was more than good, with detailed articulation... Read more... |
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, RLPO, Hindoyan, BBC Proms review - wood magic and swashbuckling show-offsMonday, 06 September 2021
After 14 years as principal conductor, Vasily Petrenko has left the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in top-league shape. The players must be as thrilled as we are that his successor, Venezuelan Armenian Domingo Hindoyan, carries the flame,... Read more... |
Chiejina, Sinfonia of London, Wilson, BBC Proms review - a musical arrival for a special favouriteSunday, 05 September 2021
Turns out John Wilson was playing the long game from the start. The dynamic British conductor eased his way into Proms schedules in 2007, establishing his John Wilson Orchestra as an annual festival fixture just two years later. Film music from the... Read more... |
Tristan und Isolde, Glyndebourne, BBC Proms review - endless love, perfect paceWednesday, 01 September 2021
“Now I’ve conducted Tristan for the first time,” the 27-year-old Richard Strauss wrote from Weimar to Wagner’s widow Cosima in 1892, “and it was the most wonderful day of my life”. Robin Ticciati, over a decade older but still young in terms of his... Read more... |
Aimard, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin, BBC Proms review - a revealing composer portraitTuesday, 31 August 2021
Composer George Benjamin has dazzling talent, but he is difficult to showcase. He is not a naturally extrovert type, and most of his projects take years to formulate, and only come about through collaboration with close and trusted performers. But... Read more... |
Kopatchinskaja, BBCSSO, Volkov, BBC Proms Review - the spirit of the dance in BartókMonday, 30 August 2021
Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja has a joyous hunger for communication through music. She sometimes seems to dance through it. This was at its most vivid when she lunged towards BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra leader Laura Samuel to invite her to... Read more... |
Crowe, BBCSSO, Volkov, BBC Proms review - shining light on history and heritageFriday, 27 August 2021
Minds in Flux is the largest of this season’s Proms commissions, and last night it afforded a rare chance for UK audiences to hear work of George Lewis outside the often insular new-music and avant-garde improvisation circuits. As a trombonist-... Read more... |
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Chineke! Orchestra, Bovell, BBC Proms - a star dancedWednesday, 25 August 2021
Now that you've found her, never let her go. I hope that’s the mantra among players of the Chineke! Orchestra and their Artistic and Executive Director Chi-chi Nwanoku – leading the double basses last night – after this Prom with Panamanian-American... Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, BBC Proms review - dazzling Stravinsky showcaseMonday, 23 August 2021
Simon Rattle and the LSO marked the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death with a concert of three “symphonies”. In fact, the programme had little to say about Stravinsky’s relationship with symphonic form: his early E flat Symphony was omitted, and... Read more... |
First Person: theartsdesk writer Bernard Hughes on composing for the BBC PromsThursday, 19 August 2021
For many years, first as a punter then latterly as a reviewer, I have sat in the section of the Royal Albert Hall stalls near stage right, under the BBC Radio broadcast box, knowing that that is where they sit the composers being premiered at the... Read more... |
