Triumphant climax lifts first night above the Proms sound and fury
Classical BBC Proms Royal Albert Hall ★★★★★
Last night’s Prom from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and singers, the first in a two-week series of concerts broadcast live on Radio 3 and BBC Two, should have been a moment to rejoice. Hopes had been high that a small live audience would be allowed in. What better send-off could there be for Lord Hall of Birkenhead, on his last day as directorgeneral of the BBC?
Alas, it was not to be. Two weeks ago came the news that there would be no audiences, which seemed feeble compared to the determination of Snape Maltings and Wigmore Hall to welcome back a real live public. But this disappointment was nothing compared to the full-scale culture war that broke out when it emerged that some members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra were unhappy about performing “jingoistic” songs at the Last Night. It caused an uproar, with traditionalists insisting nothing should be changed, and other commentators retorting that the songs were offensive in the wake of Black Lives Matter. On Monday, the BBC announced that two songs would be performed in orchestral arrangements, while another two would be sung. It was a compromise that pleased nobody, and the row continues to rumble on.
All of which might have cast a pall over last night’s event. But music has a wonderful way of rising above ideological battles. As Stephen Fry, one of the two guests with Katie Derham on BBC Two’s transmission, put it, hearing this live music after a five-month drought was like “seeing grass grow between the concrete”.
Given the need for a celebration, one might have expected a loud joyous overture to kick things off. Instead, we heard a muffled orchestral explosion followed by still, tense harmonies, out of which an anxious rocking melody emerged in high violins. This was the opening of Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama, by the young, black-british composer Hannah Kendall. It was inspired by a graffiti-like artwork by Jean-michel Basquiat, but whereas his work is all maniacal energy Kendall’s piece was super refined. It was affecting, but felt like a sketch for something that needed to be much bigger.
Then came an hour of music that moved by degrees from radiant stillness through reflective quietness to blazing triumph. The stillness came from Eric Whitacre’s Sleep, a choral meditation inspired by Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, sung with immaculate tuning and beautiful tone by the BBC Singers. It was beautiful in a somewhat glutinous way, and nowhere near as moving as Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, whose lonely, high-open-spaces harmonies were gilded with the eloquent high trumpet of Philip Cobb and the cor anglais of Alison Teale.
Finally, conductor Sakari Oramo led a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, which had a light, youthful spring in its step, without being in any way lightweight. The final triumphant chords said, be happy. The wait is over. The Proms are back.
Available for 30 days on BBC iplayer. The Proms continue until Sept 12.