PICK OF THE PROMS TOP 10 CONCERTS
Israel in Egypt is the Exodus story told by Handel
THAT QUEUE snaking up to the Royal Albert Hall can only mean one thing; it’s time for the Proms. For two months every summer, concert-goers of all ages and nationalities, whether confirmed music fanatics or complete classical newbies, gravitate to South Kensington to attend the BBC Promenade Concerts. Here they can encounter some of the best music-making in the world for just £6 a pop by standing in the venue’s arena or gallery. For those who can’t attend in person, the concerts are all broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and a television series, primarily on BBC4, offers selected highlights.
The Proms programmers have always loved to build strands around anniversaries and similar special focuses. One theme this year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. But those who are less keen on churchy associations can seek out for themselves a veritable cavalcade of great Jewish musicians and composers: many are artists whose enquiring minds, deep sensitivity and humane wisdom represent the very best classical music can offer. Here is a handy chronological Top 10 (or more) of some unmissable proms — though this is, of course, just a beginning.
1. PROM 1 JULY 14, 7.30PM
Opening night! The pianist Igor Levit is the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Edward Gardner. Though only turning 30 this year, the Russian-Jewish Levit has already become one of the most soughtafter pianists on the circuit, praised as “revelatory” by BBC Music Magazine and “In a class of his own” by the Telegraph. He moved to Germany with his family in childhood and subsequently studied in Hanover. Enjoy his Beethoven alongside music by Tom Coult and John Adams.
2. PROM 2 JULY 15, 7.30PM AND PROM 4, JULY 16, 7.45PM
Daniel Barenboim conducts his Staatskapelle Berlin, in two programmes that include the music of Elgar: first the Violin Concerto (with soloist Lisa Batiashvili) with Sibelius’s Symphony No 5, and then the Symphony No 2. Barenboim’s first wife, the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, was deeply associated with Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which the couple recorded together several years after their marriage in Israel in 1967. Following du Pré’s incapacity and subsequent death from multiple sclerosis, Barenboim scarcely touched the music of Elgar for years. Now, though, his recordings of the two symphonies have attracted great plaudits, termed “overwhelmingly impressive” by The Guardian. This is a rare chance to hear him conduct it live.
3. PROM 7 JULY 19, 7.30PM
The American siblings Joshua and Alisa Weilerstein — respectively conductor and cellist — grew up in a musical family, in which Alisa often played trios with their parents. For this concert the siblings join forces in a fascinating programme that includes the UK premiere of the new cello concerto Outscape by the French composer Pascal Dusapin, co-commissioned by the BBC. Joshua completes the programme conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz’s programmatic extravaganza, the Symphonie fantastique.
4. PROM 16 JULY 26, 7.30PM
The Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov has carved a special niche, focusing on cutting-edge new music and the resuscitation of fine rarities from the past. As principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra he heads a colourful programme in which drama is everywhere: two infrequently heard tone-poems by Franz Liszt, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and the world premiere of a new piano concerto by Julian Anderson, with soloist Steven Osborne, co-commissioned by the BBC with the Bergen Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
5. PROM 23 AUGUST 1, 7.30PM
Welcome indeed is this performance of Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, given by the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by a guru of the baroque, William Christie. You may have caught our feature about Israel in Egypt at Pesach this year: the nextbest thing to Handel setting the Haggadah, it is a stirring musical account of the Exodus story involving visceral depictions of the Ten Plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, all of it conveyed with Handel’s trademark verve and red-hot choral writing.
6. PROM 28 AUGUST 5, 7.30PM
The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is conducted by Thomas Adès, the leading British composer whose unusual name derives from his Syrian Jewish ancestors. Adès learned about this strand of his background relatively late and ten years ago it inspired him to write one of his most acclaimed orchestral works, Tevot. Tonight, though, he conducts this exciting orchestra — a significant training ground for countless gifted young UK musicians over the years – in his own Polaris,
Stravinsky’s
The Rite of
Spring and the London premiere
of Mural by Francesco Coll.
Schiff has been lauded for his Bach
7. PROM 29 AND PROM 63 AUGUST 6, 6PM, AND AUGUST 31, 7.30PM
Russian-Jewish conductor Semyon Bychkov defected from St Petersburg in 1974 after suffering under the official antisemitic policies of the USSR and speaking out against the system. Today he divides his time between operas and concert programmes and this year’s Proms features him in both. The first of his two is a complete performance of Mussorgsky’s opera Kovanshchina,a “national music drama” in which Russia itself is the heroine. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is joined by a huge cast and chorus and the special concert staging is directed by Paul Curran. Bychkov returns to perform an all-Russian programme on August 31, with the Russian-Israeli pianist Kirill Gerstein as soloist in the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 1.
8. PROM 32 AUGUST 9, 7PM
Set within a programme of British music from Purcell to the present day, Brian Elias’s new Cello Concerto enjoys its world premiere, with soloist Natalie Clein. Written especially for the ever-popular cellist, the concerto is a major new work from this Bombay-born composer of Iraqi Jewish heritage, who by his own admission writes little and not often. Earlier this year, talking to The JC, Elias explained that he feels “a piece has to have a real reason for its existence and should be written out of real need”. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.
9. PROM 66 SEPTEMBER 2, 7.30PM
Rising star soprano Chen Reiss is centre stage in Mahler’s Symphony No 4, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam conducted by Daniele Gatti. Reiss, whose background combines Hungarian, Turkish and Syrian ancestry, grew up in Israel and moved to New York aged 20. When she became a member of the Bavarian State Opera Company, its then-conductor Zubin Mehta became a mentor to her. Her first CD won a Diapason d’Or award in France in 2011 and Gramophone magazine has described her as “a soprano whose vocal ease and allure make her an artist to watch”. Mahler fans, incidentally, can also enjoy performances at the Proms of the symphonies nos. 10 (Aug 12), two (Aug 18), one (Sept 4) and six (Sept 7).
10. PROM 73 SEPTEMBER 7, 9.30PM
Sir András Schiff, who was born in Budapest to parents who survived the Holocaust, has long been lauded for the clarity, beauty and profundity of his Bach interpretations. Having mesmerised the Proms with his late-night performance of the Goldberg Variations two years ago, he returns to play the complete Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, the first 24 Preludes and Fugues. Expect Book 2 in 2018.