BBC Proms 2025: Pärt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten; Dvořák: Violin Concerto; Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 (Faust / Gewandhausorchester Leipzig / Nelsons)

26th August 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

ARVO PÄRT Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2

Isabelle Faust (violin)
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Andris Nelsons (conductor)



Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons. I was only here because my friend wanted to see Hilary Hahn performing the Dvořák VC, but unfortunately she had to withdraw due to an ongoing injury so Isabelle Faust stepped in at the last minute. As with her usual high standards, it was technically very impressive, and Nelsons gave her much room to shine, but it was actually quite painful to go through. Put crudely, it was "too German" - everything was very clean, precise, straight-to-the-point and notes and phrases were practically uttered one at a time with brute force. Yes, I know it was written for Joachim and Anne-Sophie Mutter could make it work with a muscular approach, but this was no fun, especially in III when we needed the rhythmic rigour (and the playful violin-flute dialogue, which could barely be heard). However, this kind of music-making actually worked to the advantage of Sibelius 2, where the three-note motif morphed and flourished gracefully across the orchestral texture throughout in an austere sound world. To be honest, I have never emotionally synced with Sibelius 2, but there was much to admire in this top-class performance. The tectonic movements from the thunderous strings, the Sibelius hallmark timpanis, the brasses in II, etc. It was well-paced and spacious and the overall rich sound was wonderful. Potent also was the opener "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten" (for Arvo Pärt 90). Holy minimalism or "tintinnabuli" - chilling strings and haunting bells. Effective companion to Sibelius 2.

消滅世界（2015）／村田沙耶香 "Vanishing World" (2015) by Sayaka Murata

George Orwell writes in "1984" that the Party wants to abolish the orgasm, because without the individual's existential desire, people become easier to control. In Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go", when a farmed individual becomes tools and objects of "higher" beings, one's notion of sex and reproduction becomes meaningless. Sayaka Murata performs a different thought experiment in "Vanishing World". The book describes a world in progress, where humanity has technologically reached a point where artificial insemination is the norm and culturally sex between married couples is considered incest. But society hasn't completely removed the innate desire and mechanism for sex, so suddenly "love" and "reproduction" are delineated and it's fashionable for married couples to look for lovers outside. Sex is just viewed as being old-fashioned like burial on ground. The commentary at the end of the Japanese edition calls this "a utopia for women and dystopia for men" based on Freudian psychology because power, desire and existence no longer stems from the phallus. In the last part of the book, the story takes place in a futuristic experimental city where even men and old people can carry an artificial womb to bear children. The children born are immediately taken from their parents and are raised collectively in a centre. Every adult is their "mother" and every "child" dresses, speaks, smiles and behaves almost identically without identity, and when people die, their ashes got poured on the same communal pile. Sexual desire is treated like excretion and dedicated toilet-like facilities are provided for "cleaning" purposes. The book concludes with an explosive "He loved Big Brother" ending that triggers a lot of Western readers but asks an important question - if sex becomes an obsolete activity, why are certain things immoral? This book provides much room for thought, but while the premise is very interesting, Murata has not fulfilled its full potential, leaving many areas yet to be explored (e.g. evolution of gender dynamics). It does has its quirky charm and is best enjoyed as a casual read. It is particularly suitable for people who like asking uncomfortable questions.

コンビニ人間（2016）／村田沙耶香 "Convenience Store Woman" (2016) by Sayaka Murata

Sayaka Murata won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016 for "Convenience Store Woman" (the original Japanese title is actually gender neutral), a book which has now practically become mandatory reading for all Japanese learners. Indeed, the language used never ventures beyond N3 grammar and its brevity makes it a great, easy read. It belongs to the long list of contemporary Japanese literature that questions the individual's position in a conformist society - what is normal? Should one be "normal"? 36-year-old Keiko Furukura uses to be a child considered "different" whose individualism was curbed after a school incident. Since 18, she has been working as a "temporary" staff at the same convenience store since its opening, watching customers and staff come and go, listening to the same noises which are now hardwired in her brain and doing the same mundane tasks every day (Murata herself used to work as a konbini staff in real life). She has no plans nor goals for the future and sees the world via the people around her. That is her world, that is her comfort and she can't leave, and that is basically the whole story. It is a tragicomedy. The dialogues and events are so absurd that it's funny to read, but it's also tragically real in the modern world - what is the meaning of life? The impactful thing is how the world around her evolves - her parents were happy that she got a temp job, then gets worried that she stays in the same job. Everyone is worried that she stays single and does not have a family, and when she gets a cohabiting partner (albeit just faking a relationship with a problematic outcast), people judge her on the partner and it becomes an outcry. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't, and such is how a conformist society functions. This little book does pack a punch, and is a great, realist entry point to Murata's world, which tends to shock with more outlandish thought experiments.

BBC Proms 2025: Sørensen: Evening Land; Clyne: The Years; Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Thomsen / White / Savage / Pałka / DR VokalEnsemblet / DR Symfoniorkestret / Luisi)

21st August 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

BENT SØRENSEN Evening Land
ANNA CLYNE The Years
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

Clara Cecilie Thomsen (soprano)
Jasmin White (contralto)
Issachah Savage (tenor)
Adam Pałka (bass)
DR VokalEnsemblet
DR Symfoniorkestret
Fabio Luisi (conductor)



Here is an embarrassing confession - before tonight, I had never heard Beethoven 9 live. DR Symfoniorkestret, DR VokalEnsemblet and the criminally underrated Fabio Luisi came to celebrate the orchestra's centenary. Their 2015 4 h Nielsen Prom was one of the best concerts I have ever been to so expectations were high. They went well beyond that tonight. I had the rare sensation of being shaken to the core by the sheer power and emotion of the music and performance. It was clean, sharp, spirited, disciplined, dramatic, never sentimental, phrases finely accented and articulated, layers transparent without sounding HIP. Sure, there were murky brasses and winds here and there, but Luisi paced and balanced the music with such a stylish narrative that you can forgive the little blemishes. The timpanis were so effective in generating the earth shattering effects, always propelling the music forward. I felt that a standing ovation was needed even just after the first movement and by the time when the "Ode to Joy" fugue flourished, Luisi had become my favourite living conductor. But the real reason I was here was because of the opener "Evening Land" by the Grawemeyer-winning Bent Sørensen, a work that contrasts the cosmopolitan night of NYC with that of the Danish countryside. Sørensen's music got me through the early stages of the pandemic. His penchant for micro-fragments, microtones and micro-glissandi in a continuous flow generates music that are simultaneously serene and eerie. This is one of several pieces he has written that depicts microcosms during magic hours (c.f. two of his piano concertos). It is always an evolving contrast between local and global mysteries. It was sublime and beguiling, perfect for inquisitive minds, though perhaps RAH was the wrong venue for this sort of music. NY-based British composer Anna Clyne's pandemic-inspired "The Years" consisted of 20 min of repetitive, linear blocks of chords sung by a choir churning through a text against slightly more variable orchestral textures. It might appeal more to smooth classical listeners than fans of Danish New Simplicity. Both pieces were very politely received before the interval.

BBC Proms 2025: Hisaishi: Symphonic Suite: The Boy and the Heron, The End of the World; Reich: The Desert Music (Holiday / BBC Singers / National Youth Voices / Philharmonia Chorus / RPO / Hisaishi)

14th August 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

JOE HISAISHI Symphonic Suite: The Boy and the Heron
JOE HISAISHI The End of the World (2015 version)
STEVE REICH The Desert Music

John Holiday (counter-tenor)
BBC Singers
National Youth Voices
Philharmonia Chorus
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Joe Hisaishi (conductor)



It was the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (Japan surrendered in WWII on US 14/8 and JP 15/8) and the BBC recruited the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, of all people, Joe Hisaishi to commemorate the event with a very bleak and pessimistic programme. Fans of Studio Ghibli anticipating tuneful music for fantasy worlds got 15 min of that in the form of a "Symphonic Suite" from the Oscar-winning "The Boy and the Heron", but even that movie was set in WWII and a tragedy of war and destruction. Outside his Ghibli work, Hisaishi is a minimalist composer. "The End of the World" is a 2015 global generalisation of a 2008 work written in response to 9/11 and is inspired by the 1962 song by Skeeter Davis which starts with the line "Why does the sun go on shining?" (think about the Japanese flag; song is reharmonised as V). The work is tuneful and shows Hisaishi's mastery in colourful orchestration and even includes joyful big band jazz in II, but it is always played against a recurring siren and unsettling chimes - it's tragicomedy again - can we still live as usual and have fun in the face of adversity? In Steve Reich's "The Desert Music", the desert refers to many things, especially Alamogordo, the site of the atomic bomb testing, and the desert left behind by human destruction. Hearing 45 min of a constantly evolving rhythmic and harmonic continuum was a special sonic experience. One has to appreciate the sheer stamina and virtuosity of the players and three chorus. It takes the kindred spirit of a fellow minimalist to unearth the fascinating nuances like the fugue in IIIA and the gliss en masse in IIIC. Compared to the recent recording, RPO and Hisaishi were on aggressive high octane mode. It was rich, spiky and relentless and I feared getting shell shock from the beats. There is no real resolution to any of these. We humans have not learnt anything in 80 years either. "How are you going to live your life?" ("君たちはどう生きるか" - original title of "TB&TH") Leaders who discuss Ukraine and Gaza today, those who deforest the world every day, and those who insult Miyazaki and the human spirit with AI - do you want to turn this planet into a desert? How do you want to live your life?

BUTTER（2017）／柚木麻子 "Butter" (2017) by Asako Yuzuki

Asako Yuzuki's "Butter" has been crazily successful in the UK since the English translation came out, winning Waterstone's "Book of the Year" in 2024 and "Debut Book of the Year" from The British Book Awards in 2025, and it has been all over social media. Interestingly, if it wasn't for the overseas success, it was relatively unnoticed in the East. Yuzuki herself pointed out in interviews that it is marketed as a "feminist" novel in the West and, judging from online commentaries, the theme of "Japanese women fighting for emancipation from repressive social expectations" resonates with a lot of Western readers and is the major driving force behind the massive boom of Japanese literature by female authors in recent years. From the opening chapters, it is indeed interesting to notice that Yuzuki writes with a very direct, powerful and outright polemic language which is not a very typically Japanese way of communication. The story is about a female reporter trying to get an exclusive interview with an "unattractive" female prisoner alleged to have killed three men. It is less concerned about the case itself but an extensive examination on (Japanese) social standards. It covers everything from biased media representation of women (including anime), toxic online communities, idol worshipping, sexless marriages, parental relationships, to acceptance of foreign cultures (e.g. struggle to cook turkey for thanksgiving and understand fasting for Ramadan). "Butter" is used as a metaphor for authenticity ("There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine"), an agent of fattening leading to discussions on body image, a subliminal image for bodily fluids with regards to the female body, erotic relationships and motherhood and an indicator of variable economic values (price of butter fluctuates with scarcity in the book). As social commentary, it is very comprehensive; but as a work of fiction, it goes on for way too long. 2/3 of the book have no real development and overall it feels like a generic J-drama. The east-west disparity in reception becomes clear: if commentaries on Japanese society is an exotic novelty for you, there is much to offer in "Butter". Otherwise, those looking for hard literature, there are alternatives.

BBC Proms 2025: Adams: The Chairman Dances; Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4; Berio: Sinfonia (Lim / BBC Singers / CBSO / Yamada)

1st August 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

JOHN ADAMS The Chairman Dances
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 4
BERIO Sinfonia

Yunchan Lim (piano)
BBC Singers
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Kazuki Yamada (conductor)



I don't know if the organisers were being deliberately sardonic or not, but placing Berio's modernist masterpiece "Sinfonia" right after the titular "Yunchan Lim Plays Rachmaninov" amused me, and of all pieces they went for "Piano Concerto No. 4", a divisive work which some consider an understated gem and others an incoherent mess that even Michelangeli could not make it work. Is Lim just a media hype? He sure has a fantastic palette of sounds, dreamy phrasings and a clean, bright tone, but Rach 4 hardly does anybody justice and is not a good indicator for anything. It didn't help when the fire alarm went off mid-I and the pre-II pause killed everybody's mood. The harmonic tension in the Korngold encore was quite stunning. I have no interest in John Adams so I didn't pay much attention to the opening "Chairman Dances", but as my mind drifted I realised I was standing behind a couple of Japanese, in front of a Korean, left to a Taiwanese family and right to a mainland Chinese. Something from "Nixon in China" in the current global and geopolitical climate is actually a perfect companion to the Berio. 2/3 of the Arena audience left before "Sinfonia" and more walked out during the fantastic performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by the animated Kazuki Yamada. Fans of Rachmaninov would probably struggle with Berio's penchant for using the piano to punctuate extended ethereal orchestral and choral textures generated by chordal suspense. CBSO's brass and winds were outstanding, as were the BBC Singers, of course. I actually thought Yamada's rendition was too smooth and pretty, especially when III needed the political angst, and he glossed over the "Pli selon Pli" chord, which was a little bit disappointing, but Yamada was such a passionate communicator and you can see why the CBSO loves him. It was a chaotic Prom from beginning to end and everyone was lost one way or another. Irony indeed, as nobody could have organised anything more appropriate to celebrate Berio 100 than this level of authentic absurdity.