Jiří Bělohlávek conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms (BBC/Chris Christodoulou)
You
get two concerts in one at the Last Night of the Proms. There are two
overtures, two soloists, and enough endings to draw a line under even
a concert season of this magnitude. The competing demands on the
programme can lead to the impression that it has been drawn up by
committee, and given the length of the evening, there were a handful
of works we may have been better off without. The prommers didn't see
it that way of course, and the audience's enthusiasm was certainly
infectious, even if it did lead to applause at the end of, and
sometimes during, individual movements.
The
evening opened with sparks, a
new commission from Mark Simpson. Perhaps the BBC had asked him for
something like Stravinsky's Fireworks,
a short, fizzing opener filled with innovative orchestral effects. As
the more modest title suggests, the piece didn't quite ignite in the
way that Stravinsky's so convincingly does, but it certainly got the
concert going and demonstrated some impressive orchestration skills
on the part of this young composer.
The
first half lost its direction after that. There was a bit of
everything in there, but the only truly memorable parts were the
contributions from the fine soloists. Second on the programme was
Suk's choral Towards a New Life.
The piece has an Olympic connection, which is one justification for
its performance. In fact, it is quite a Last-Night-of-the-Proms
piece, a kind of Czech Land of Hope and Glory,
although with a big tune that is closer to Crown Imperial.
Fun
and upbeat music from Suk was contrasted on both counts by the Delius
that followed. Songs of Farewell
is as stodgy and opaque as anything Delius wrote. It is his
anniversary year, so a presence of some sort on the Last Night
programme is perhaps justified, but twenty minutes of this tested the
patience of even the keenest of us. Good singing from the BBC
Symphony Chorus though in both works. No BBC Singers this year – a
budgetary constraint perhaps? - but their amateur colleagues proved
more than capable of the task in hand.
Nicola
Benedetti's performance of the Bruch First Concerto was the high
point of the first half. Her complex but light tone had no difficulty
in filling the hall, and the intimacy she can invoke, even here,
provided the ideal balance to the pomp and grandeur of what was to
follow. Joseph Calleja was on top form too. He delivered a series of
mostly Italian arias in full Mario Lanza mode. But he is a singer
with tons of personality, so there was never any danger this sounding
like imitation. Why did he end the first half with “Nessun Dorma”?
To celebrate the spectacular success of Britain's bid for the 2018
World Cup?
Everything
changed after the interval, and for the better. The BBC SO gave
performances in the first half that were no more than serviceable,
though it is hard for an orchestra to shine in a programme that
includes a long list of bleeding-chunk arias and twenty minutes of
soupy Delius. But as soon as we sat down for the second half, it was
clear that they had found their form. John Williams' Olympic
Fanfare
is the ideal piece for raising fervour, patriotic or otherwise, and
it effectively focussed the rising sense of anticipation in the hall.
Dvořák's
Carnival
Overture was another startling success, and in this, Bělohlávek's
final concert at the helm of the BBC SO, it was an impressive
demonstration of the Czech sensibilities he had instilled in the
players.
A
few short contributions from the two soloists followed, but nothing
here to match their first half appearances. While Joseph Calleja was
singing Grenada, I was
thinking that his head voice is disappointingly thin. But when in the
next number we all had to sing along with him in “You'll never walk
alone” I suddenly realised that I don't even have a head voice, so
full respect to the man.
There
isn't really any point in discussing the musical merits of the
evening's conclusion is there? Suffice it to say that Bělohlávek
skilfully negotiated the boisterous crowd and gave a short but
effective speech. When you've conducted as many grand operas as he
has, the challenges of holding together an event of this scale must
seem mild. The BBC SO took one small step towards gender equality
with the first ever female euphonium soloist, one Becky Smith, in the
Sea Songs. And there was a parade of Olympic medallists during Land
of Hope and Glory.
But otherwise tradition was strictly observed, giant flags, party
poppers, silly hats and all.