Proms
Prom 21: Hope, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, SøndergårdTuesday, 30 July 2013
The “Turning Point” in Colin Matthews’ so-named orchestral piece is a change of attitude, a sudden seriousness of purpose, a great effort of will to stop moving and take stock of where it - whatever it is - is going. That Matthews did actually stop... Read more... |
Prom 20: Götterdämmerung, Staatskapelle Berlin, BarenboimMonday, 29 July 2013
And so Wotan’s ravens flew home and at the twilight’s last gleaming the immortals were consumed by fire and water. All was finally and irrevocably redeemed by the power of love, and the most beautiful of all the leitmotifs in Wagner’s Ring rolled... Read more... |
Prom 19: Tristan und Isolde, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BychkovSunday, 28 July 2013
Such has been the justifiable flow of superlatives this week about the Berlin Staatskapelle's Ring conducted by Barenboim, the centrepiece of the BBC Proms' Wagner bicentenary celebration, it would have been easy to forget that the 2013 Proms season... Read more... |
Prom 18: Siegfried, Staatskapelle Berlin, BarenboimSaturday, 27 July 2013
The transformative power of the Royal Albert Hall at Proms-time never ceases to amaze me. Here is Siegfried, the third in Wagner’s Ring cycle, sprawling in length, not over-strong in characters, yet in the Proms setting the rather over-extended... Read more... |
Prom 17: Antonio Márquez Company, BBC Philharmonic, MenaFriday, 26 July 2013
JThis year’s Proms have been accompanied by an unusual choral drone, a monotony of voices whinging about the prodigious heat at the Albert Hall. For one night only no one was complaining as the temperature gauge went up to something like 111. You’ve... Read more... |
Prom 15: Die Walküre, Staatskapelle Berlin, BarenboimWednesday, 24 July 2013
Things may be falling apart, a storm now rages but new broods of humans and demigoddesses have been fathered by chief god Wotan, who has undergone a Doctor Who like transformation from Iain Paterson into Bryn Terfel. Four new top singers appear on... Read more... |
Prom 14: Das Rheingold, Staatskapelle Berlin, BarenboimTuesday, 23 July 2013
Swimming around in the Rhine is what most of us wanted to be doing on the hottest day of the year. A cooling, riverbed low E flat from Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin double basses, and then the staggered horn entries announced we were going to be in the... Read more... |
Proms Saturday Matinee 1/Proms Chamber Music 2Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Yes it’s Wagner Week at the Proms, and just up the road in the Royal Albert Hall there are dwarves and giants enough to rival Comic Con, and enough noise to silence any objection and obliterate all competition. Even the greatest of musical excess... Read more... |
Prom 13: National Youth Orchestra of America, GergievMonday, 22 July 2013
Youth orchestras do well at the Proms. Built to the same sprawling scale as the Royal Albert Hall, their energy is also a natural fit for the relentlessly enthusiastic Proms audience. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the Simón Bolívar Youth... Read more... |
Prom 12: Accademia di Santa Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra, PappanoSunday, 21 July 2013
It’s a dilemma of anniversary years, and never more so than with Wagner’s and Verdi’s 200th birthdays: do you stick to the masterpieces or try and bring the rarities to life? No-one would have minded, I suspect, if Antonio Pappano and the Accademia... Read more... |
10 Questions for Semyon BychkovSaturday, 20 July 2013
By the time silence descends on the Royal Albert Hall at five o’clock in the afternoon for a performance that will end six hours later, Semyon Bychkov will have been rehearsing for 60 hours. It breaks down into four days of orchestra readings, with... Read more... |
Prom 8: BBC Symphony Orchestra, AdèsThursday, 18 July 2013
Anniversary years are essential to classical music, shaking up our regular rhythms of programming and listening every year with new emphasis and new discoveries. While Britten, Wagner and Verdi have all had their moments in 2013, it is Witold... Read more... |
