BBC Proms 2023: Prom 47 - Ligeti: Concert românesc, Violin Concerto; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, Symphony No. 41 (Faust / Melnikov / Les Siècles / Roth)

20th August 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

LIGETI Concert românesc
LIGETI Violin Concerto
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23
MOZART Symphony No. 41

Isabelle Faust (violin)
Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano)
Les Siècles
François‐Xavier Roth (conductor)



Baffling programme tonight, this Harmonia Mundi Prom. François‐Xavier Roth's versatile Les Siècles paired Ligeti with Mozart. The early "Concert românesc" is the fun, melodic, folk-inspired Ligeti that is the beginning of everything but is often overshadowed by his later styles. It is one of the first orchestral scores I bought, in fact, and proves to be essential listening (along with "Musica ricercata") for the appreciation of his later styles. Even early on, Ligeti experiments with extreme instrumental timbres and orchestral dynamics, like getting the strings to play sul pont. or con sord. at pp against brass at ff. Achieving that extreme sonic contrast with such clarity in the RAH was nothing less than impressive. The "Violin Concerto" is the supreme culmination of almost all of Ligeti's styles, and goes beyond. It calls for unusual instrumentaion (ocarinas!), scordatura, folk(-inspired) music, micropolyphony, microtonal clusters, natural harmonics, you name it. Isabelle Faust gave a muscular, no-nonsense and frankly Romantic rendition of this concerto (c.f. PatKop) with Strasnoy's cadenza. I particularly enjoyed the highly expressive slow movement. It was an Expressionist solo matched by French elegance from the orchestra with very little rustic quality you'd expect from Ligeti. Everything was wrong in the right way and right in the wrong way and it's wonderful. Mozart's PC23 was a bit dodgy. Using a fortepiano in the middle of the orchestra without halving the strings in the RAH meant you could hardly hear the soloist even up close. That aside, Alexander Melnikov's very liberal rubatos, excessive mannerisms and occasional additional ornaments meant it was far from note perfect, to the point of being outright wrong and missing entries. Pretty unforgivable for a Mozart concerto, really. Also played with period instruments (and the second violin leader with a LH violin), "Symphony No. 41" was forceful. Enjoyable, if a bit heavy-handed with some questionable pauses in the minuet and trio. This Prom was a bit mixed. I love this orchestra, but I'd rather hear them pairing Rameau and Ravel with Boulez instead.