BBC Proms 2022: Prom 50 - Tallis: Spem in alium; MacMillan: Miserere, Vidi aquam etc. (The Sixteen / Christophers)

24th August 2022
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

TRADITIONAL Plainsong 'Salve Regina'
TAVENER A Hymn to the Mother of God
TALLIS Spem in alium
JAMES MACMILLAN Miserere
TYE 'Agnus Dei' from Missa 'Euge bone'
GÓRECKI Totus tuus
SHEPPARD 'Agnus Dei' from Missa 'Cantate'
JAMES MACMILLAN Vidi aquam
BYRD Diliges Dominum

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (conductor)



Hearing 'Spem in alium' in the RAH is a bit of a dream come true, and this late night Prom is the perfect antidote to Mahler 2. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen brought an hour of music by English Renaissance masters Tallis, Tye, Sheppard and Byrd intertwined with modern choral works by Tavener, MacMillan, and Górecki. I must admit I have a very significant Oxbridge bias and inevitably sound rather snobbish every time I discuss choral music in those terms. Walking into this Prom, I did expect a sonic palette that would appeal more to the "smooth" classical music audience. It was all nice and pleasant, but the overall aesthetics of their sound emphasise more heavily on display and is generally lacking in the spiritual dimension these music warrant. I would have preferred to take the music more slowly and give them more breathing space to resonate, but I guess they are here for a performance in a concert rather than singing for a service in a cathedral. There were moments where I found the balance was all over the place but I could not work out whether it was an inherent performance problem or if it was the acoustics. The early-contemporary criss-cross programming did mess up the brain, but it's been a long while since I last attended a service or choral concert, so it was refreshing in any case. I have reached a mental stage where I much prefer to listen to Renaissance polyphony than contemporary rhythms and harmonies. I am getting old.

BBC Proms 2022: Prom 49 - Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Alder / Connolly / CBSO Chorus / LS Chorus / LSO / Rattle)

24th August 2022
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

BIRTWISTLE Donum Simoni MMXVIII
MAHLER Symphony No. 2

Louise Alder (soprano)
Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)
CBSO Chorus
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)



Simon Rattle. LSO. Mahler 2. Do I really need to write this post? This line-up brought down the RAH website this morning and rammed the arena in the evening. Spoiler alert: full house standing ovation. M2 was one of the first symphonies I loved and bought the score to study and, to this day, every listen of M2 is still a transcendental experience. It's the 90-minute journey from anguish to release that does the musical magic, and is perhaps the most tuneful Mahler symphony as well. Obviously, all the Rattle and LSO hallmarks were there, the rich orchestral colours, the nuanced phrasing, the big drama, and it was a significantly more powerful performance than his CBSO recording. Fabulous woodwinds and brass - all there - what's not to love? The thing that bugged me, and it's probably just entirely personal preference, was that he milked the orchestral playing so much, which were instantaneously exciting, that it became tedious to hear at that level of intensity on the large scale. II and III just dragged on and on and I started to feel numb halfway. Sarah Connolly and Louise Alder were wondrous, and the CBSO and LS choruses were exceptional in V. Simon Halsey rehearsed them so well they sang without sheet music and, joining in at ppp with such purity, they immediately transformed the scene. To me, the choir was the game-changer. The finale was proper tear-jerking stuff. It's always difficult to tick all the boxes in Mahler. Whatever complaint one has, it was still hands down an exceptional performance. This Prom was also dedicated to the late Harrison Birtwistle and the programme started with a 3-minute piece by Birtwistle dedicated to Rattle, named, literally, "Donum Simoni MMXVIII". Don't get it, don't ask me, but the speech beforehand was very moving.

BBC Proms 2022: Prom 48 - Webern: Passacaglia, Six Pieces; Debussy / Dean: Ariettes oubliées; Brahms: Symphony No. 2 (Stagg / AWO / Mehta)

23rd August 2022
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

WEBERN Passacaglia
WEBERN Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6 (revised version, 1928)
DEBUSSY (arr. Brett Dean) Ariettes oubliées
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

Siobhan Stagg (soprano)
Australian World Orchestra
Zubin Mehta (conductor)



Zubin Mehta is now 86, how did that happen!? I don't know why, but he has never been my go-to conductor, yet if you look at his back catalogue (e.g. accompanying Horowitz in Rach 3 or backing the Three Tenors), he is an absolute legend. It's also rather rare to see him in the UK. So he is here tonight, conducting the Australian World Orchestra, a curious ensemble where they bring together Australian expats from the world's leading orchestras to play as a national entity. The programme started with a fiery Webern "Passacaglia" that actually swung hard. Big gestures, sumptuous sound, it's a wonder why this ultra-Romantic work is not played more often. It was the most exhilarating rendition I have heard with notable rhythmic agility. It was followed by the atonal (but not yet serial) Webern in the form of "Six Pieces, Op. 6", where big expressions are condensed into microscopic cells of incredible tension that constantly verges on exploding. It's quite remarkable to experience live, especially the earth-shattering percussion-brass dialogue. Curiously, it was followed by Brett Dean's orchestral arrangements of Debussy's "Ariettes oubliées". It is blatantly asking for comparison with the master orchestrator that is Debussy himself, and I found the arrangements quite thin, with one of them sounding like a inferior version of "Printemps". Fabulous singing by Siobhan Stagg though. Sunny, life-(re)affirming Brahms 2 in the second half was solid. It was one of those excellent performances where I can't identify anything that stood out (not necessarily a bad thing per se) and I just don't have anything intellectual to say. It was nicely put together with great solos, excellent flow and the overall sound was so naturally pleasant like clean water and air that you just take for granted without realising how difficult it is to strike the perfect balance for a work like this. I was just simply happy to be there from beginning to end. Mehta has to walk slowly with a walking stick and conduct from a stool now. I hope he stays healthy for many more years to come.

BBC Proms 2022: Prom 35 - Sibelius: Tapiola; Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1; R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (Wang / Oslo PO / Mäkelä)

SIBELIUS Tapiola
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1
R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben

Yuja Wang (piano)
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä (conductor)



Who is Klaus Mäkelä? At 26, the Finnish conductor has been appointed to lead three major European orchestras since 2018. He became the third-ever conductor Decca has ever signed (after Solti and Chailly). He catapulted to major stardom in 2022 - how and why? I find his Sibelius cycle pretty uneven, ranging from truly revelatory to downright boring, so I have to turn up live to discover more. Pretty demanding programme tonight - Sibelius' mysterious, pre-Järvenpää silence large-scale masterpiece "Tapiola" and Strauss' epic "Ein Heldenleben". Being a cellist himself, he seems to have a penchant for emphasising the lower strings, which has done wonders in revealing the subtle tectonic syncopations in Sibelius' music. This "Tapiola" was the most riveting and lively rendition among all versions I heard this week and by the end of it I realised why everyone likes him. He has a sense of textural clarity I have not heard since Boulez. He lets everybody in the orchestra shine through, making every orchestral work essentially a massive chamber piece with all internal tensions attached, yet somehow he manages to keep everything constantly flowing as an organic whole. Most importantly, visibly, everybody on stage looks like they are having the time of their lives, and that sense of pure joy just radiates through. It's magic, but also feels inappropriate to hear Sibelius played this happily. Whether this works equally well in Strauss is a matter of taste. It either comes across as being too light for a late Romantic work, or it's a completely revelatory experience of discovering the textural complexity of the work. I have mixed feelings about it, but it was mostly positive. Top notch playing, though some people would argue, for a tone poem, it's not dramatic enough. Sandwiched between the two works was PC1 by the father of tone poems, Liszt. Yuja Wang doing pyrotechnics, nothing could go wrong, and I was positively surprised that she offered a lot more subtlety and colours than I last heard her, especially in the very effective quiet passages. The synergy between soloist and orchestra was strong, and they actually struck the right sonic balance for the RAH acoustics. Mäkelä is the real deal, and we have a lot to look forward to. I hope he does not burn out or sell out.

BBC Proms 2022: Prom 20 - Birtwistle: Sonance Severance 2000; Ravel: Piano Concerto; Xenakis: Jonchaies; Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Borrow / BBC SO / Brabbins)

BIRTWISTLE Sonance Severance 2000
RAVEL Piano Concerto
XENAKIS Jonchaies
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Tom Borrow (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)



Closer friends of mine know that I have lived in PTSD-induced self-isolation for a while. Who would have thought, everything considered, the sole reason I got out of my little cave was to go and see a performance of a Xenakis orchestral work? Am I a fan of Xenakis or otherwise noise compositions? Not at all, but if it's not a Xenakis centenary celebration, one rarely gets a chance to hear his earth-shattering works live so I was merely there to earn a bragging right. Calling for 109 musicians, "Jonchaies" is a 15-minute work that has most of the musicians constantly participating in some ferocious glissandi, thus generating a sumptuous and complex texture that was (in)famous in the bygone era of the avant garde. It is basically stochastic noise, except, pretty rare for Xenakis, the work is actually somewhat melodious and rhythmic, which makes it a nice companion work to "The Rite of Spring" that was to come in the second half. It's not everyday you get to see the entire brass section going berserk sliding up and down their entire registers, while the pretty chill conductor Martyn Brabbins beating, as far as I noticed, mostly 4/4. It did not smack me in the face as much as I anticipated, and the piccolo duet at the end did not pierce through my eardrums, but it really was quite an experience. The Prom opened with a short Birtwistle piece in commemoration of the late composer. "Sonance Severance 2000" is a 5-minute overture-like piece that sounds pretty warm for Birtwistle. I wasn't actually in the mood to hear the Ravel PC again live, but when the cor anglais solo hit in II, I was reminded how much live music used to mean to me, how everything has changed during this five-year hiatus, and of the brave Ukrainians who played on this same stage this very morning, and I choked up a bit under the mask. It was a pretty average performance frankly. Nice tone and nuances from the young Tom Borrow, but overall it lacks the flair and rhythmic vitality the music calls for. It did hit a soft spot though. "The Rite of Spring" was solid, incisive at times, always exciting to hear live. You can't go wrong with the veteran BBC SO. It's 2022, the audience actually missed Birtwistle at the Proms, erupted in applause for Xenakis and everyone around me in the arena headbanged to "The Rite of Spring". A bunch of kids under 10 left the RAH dancing to the lingering pulse of "Danse sacrale". Time has irreversibly changed, and we need to embrace it. It's beautiful, if you choose to see it that way.