A great Russian soprano triumphs in her long-overdue UK debut
Czech Philharmonic/ Semyon Bychkov Royal Albert Hall, London SW7
★★★★★
This year’s Proms have featured a smaller parade than usual of the greatest foreign orchestras, perhaps due to BBC budgets. But one indisputably great band was on blazing form on Tuesday evening during the final week of the Proms: 50 years after it first appeared at the festival, the Czech Philharmonic was making one of its periodic visits, this time in exciting partnership with its new music director, Semyon Bychkov.
Where else to begin but with the overture and dances from The Bartered
Bride? Smetana’s masterpiece is a cornerstone of the rich Czech operatic repertoire, and this music proved a good showcase for the orchestra’s deep culture and cultivated sound. Bychkov may have a reputation for staid tempos, but here they felt just right and well sprung, allowing the strings room for their articulation and all the players breathing space to enjoy the music. The Polka had lilt and lift – just as much flexibility is called for here as when conducting waltzes in neighbouring Vienna – and Bychkov carefully highlighted the yearning pull under the jollity of the Dance of the Comedians. The orchestra has also been
exploring Tchaikovsky with its St Petersburg-born conductor, and here they were joined by Elena Stikhina for Tatyana’s Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin. Making her overdue British debut – she has sung in many of the world’s leading houses, but not yet at Covent Garden – the Russian soprano seemed to inhabit the part completely even before she sang a note. She traced the vocal lines with palpitating freshness, revealing dusky layers of colour within her voice. Purling woodwinds helped the orchestra to evoke a bucolic summer night.
The weight of the evening fell after the interval with a searing performance of Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. A wartime work from 1943 that sits squarely in the middle of his 15-symphony cycle, this massive score is among the composer’s bleakest, and Bychkov’s unfolding of it was taut and inexorable. He drew sinewy playing of great stillness, also unleashing blistering climaxes and allowing all sections of the orchestra to shine along the way towards the music’s ambiguously grey ending.
Bychkov’s way with Shostakovich is already widely admired, but now that he is immersing himself in Czech music, perhaps he could help the Proms to branch out a little. Next time, please, a symphony by Martinů, one great composer completely ignored at this year’s Proms.
Hear this Prom for 30 days on the BBC Sounds app. The Proms continue until Saturday: 020 7070 4441; bbc.co. uk/proms