A children’s Prom hijacked by terrifying eco-propaganda
The Lost Words Royal Albert Hall ★★★★★
Anger might seem an odd response to a Prom about the simple beauties of apple blossom and otters and ravens, decked out in sweetly innocent folk song and vapidly euphonious orchestral pieces, but it’s entirely appropriate because this Prom – ostensibly inspired by The Lost
Words, the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris about the magic potency of the names we give to the natural world – was a lot more than that. It used the book as cover for a statement of the most extreme form of eco-catastrophism, designed to terrify and intimidate the mostly young audience, who clearly lacked the maturity to challenge it.
The statement came right at the outset, with a recording of Greta Thunberg, telling us that we were in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, that 200 species are dying every day, that we are all basically going to hell in a handcart. Just in case we missed the message, we were forced to hear the same words all over again, in a new piece by Jocelyn Pook entitled You
Need to Listen to Us, performed by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the Southbank Sinfonia.
It was a tough call to turn the doom-laden horror of Thunberg’s message into an expression of limp hand-wringing, but somehow Pook pulled it off, with the aid of some astonishingly saccharine harmonies.
I was so annoyed by the BBC’S blatant politicising of an event aimed at children, and the sly way it sugared a very bitter pill, that I found it hard to pay attention to the rest of the Prom.
And, frankly, the general air of naive wonder did become a bit wearing; the reality of “nature red in tooth and claw” was carefully avoided.
Still, there were some enjoyable things. The poems, accompanied by suggestively sinuous dancing from Thomas Carsley, were recited with passion by Beth Porter and Caleb Femi, among others. Jackie Morris painted various animals in a few deft strokes, projected on to a big screen. We heard some wonderful natureinspired music, ranging from Vivaldi and Beethoven to a clutch of recent pieces some of which were anodyne, but some – like the song Heron, performed by the folk/world group Spell Songs – invigorating. The National Youth Choir were the heroes of the evening, performing piece after piece with focused intensity.
It’s unfortunate that the supposedly impartial BBC turned a promising event into an opportunity for eco-propaganda.
Listen to this Prom for 30 days on BBC Sounds. The Proms continue until Sept 14. 020 7070 4441; bbc.co.uk/proms
A recording of Greta Thunberg told us that we are all basically going to hell in a handcart