Melodies inspired by timeless classics
Proms 2017 Celebrating John Williams BBC Co/lockhart, Royal Albert Hall ★★★★★
In most Proms, there comes a point where risk and challenge enter the picture. We accept that, and go knowing that the obscure Bohemian symphony we’ve never heard of might be just plain dull, and the newly commissioned piece incomprehensible. But once or twice in a season there’s a Prom that promises a risk-free evening of uncomplicated bliss. This was one of them. It was a celebration of the music of John Williams, surely the world’s favourite film composer. His melodies for Star Wars, E.T., Superman and all the rest are lodged so firmly in the collective consciousness that they seem ageless, as if we’ve always known them.
Part of the reason they seem that way is that Williams borrows so unashamedly from the classics. Time and again I found myself thinking – what does that remind me of? Sometimes, as in the magical moment from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, or the gleefully diabolical Devil’s dance from The Witches of Eastwick, the borrowing (from Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique respectively) was easy to spot. At other times, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it – which is why Williams’s evocation of archetypal emotions like martial valour or pastoral innocence worked such a powerful spell.
In fact, the evening wasn’t all safely predictable. There were lesser-known scores, such as the authentic-sounding “African” song Dry Your Tears Afrika, from Amistad. It was fervently sung by the choirs Haringey Vox and Music Centre London, but they were overwhelmed by the orchestra, which I suspect was amplified to add to the evening’s “filmic” appeal. The Prayer for Peace from the score for Munich had a pronounced Jewish melancholy, a tone I’ve never associated with Williams.
Apart from the odd dull moment (the Prologue from the score to JFK was very four-square), the evening as a whole was a delight, but two things deserve a special mention. One was the superbly virtuoso playing of the BBC Concert Orchestra under Keith Lockhart, and the guest soloists. The tender cello solo from Jamal Aliyev in Memoirs of a Geisha is in my ear still. The other was the discovery that it’s fantasy and enchantment that bring out the best in Williams, not the martial heroics of Star Wars. In E.T. the enchanting utopian vision is of a universe redeemed by love, which Williams’s soaringly expressive music made real, if only for a moment.
This Prom was broadcast on BBC4 on Friday – see and hear it on the BBC iplayer. All Proms are broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. bbc.co.uk/proms