Proms 2011 (1)

The 117th. Season of Promenade Concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall are coming near to the end, when on September 10th there will be the usual strange combination of popular classics and post-imperial nostalgia.

Seventy four concerts in one venue is an amazing gift to music-lovers able to get to London or to hear on BBC radio with more than ever concerts on TV. And if you can cope with standing in the arena or balcony (as a teenager I have done both) you could have heard all concerts for a mere £190. Such an opportunity for younger people to learn music, though I notice that the aficionados at the front of the arena night after night are not at all young!

I have been able to listen to – and see – some concerts and they have been impressive, with our own national orchestras proving their worth. And it’s good to compare them with such visiting orchestras as the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras from the U.S.A. and the Tonhalle Orchestra from Zurich.

I was listening to a repeat of the Swiss performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony this afternoon. It was reviewed well in today’s Guardian, Tim Ashley saying That David Zinman’s direction was ‘all sinew, steel and volatility’.

Most reviews that I have read have been very positive, though I agree with one which criticised Gustavo Dudamel ‘s conducting of Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony as extravagantly slow and detailed, robbing it of momentum and coherence. Even so, as with so many of the concerts I have heard, the balance between the sections of the orchestra was exceptional, highlighting the quality of performance and the beauty of the sound.

A concert that I found very moving and the memory of which remains with me was one given by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink with a wonderful performance of Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto.

The rapport between two such experienced musicians and the orchestra was transparent. The dedication, but also the pleasure in making music together, was very special.

There’s more to come and I am particularly looking forward to next Sunday when the great Colin Davis will be conducting the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in Beethoven’s Miss Solemnis, in a broadcast and televised performance. The work demands impossibilities from the performers – and a conductor of 84 years of age!

B.R.

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