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.