Selected Reviews

Proms Chamber Music 1 – July 18

From over 1,000 musicians the night before to just one; Monday lunchtime, July 18 at Cadogan Hall saw the queue for returns only halfway down the street for the first ever solo harpsichord recital in the history of the Proms – Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ - played by a BBC Young Artist, Mahan Esfahani. Here was an equally memorable event, for he played this complete masterpiece superbly well, one’s only musical caveat being that – as in days of yore – the demands of the BBC, which sayeth that the Cadogan Proms must finish at 2.00pm (they start just after 1.00pm), meant that repeats were in very short supply: a great pity in some ways, for Bach of course occasionally writes alternative music to ensure the repeats are made, so the result was something of a patchwork. But as half a loaf is better than none, we had the exceptionally fine playing of Mahan Esfahani to console us at mid-day, rather than as a late-nighter. Our new-found Irish friends were at this one, too.

There is one other caveat: a female ‘Radio 3 presenter’ introduced this programme from the stage, tailing it afterwards with more announcements from the stage, before re-calling our harpsichordist, who then read some text of literary merit into a hand-held microphone. Quite what Ms whatever-her-name-was thought she was doing was beyond me, for this is an innovation in recitals we can well do without; let’s have no more of performing musicians turning themselves into actors once the music is over. Esfahani deserves high praise for his playing; for his verse-reading, none at all.

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Prom 8 – July 20

Jean-Guihen Queyras (another Frenchman) was the soloist in Dvorák’s Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony under Jirí Belohlávek, opening a programme completed by Smetana’s complete ‘Má vlast’ cycle of symphonic poems.

This was a delightful Prom; although one felt Queyras could on occasion have been a shade more assertive, he and Belohlávek were as one, the result making this listener fall in love with the music all over again. Belohlávek, giving the Smetana cycle for the first time ever complete at the Proms, then showed his finest qualities: conducting without a score (!) this was a great performance, a comprehensive demonstration of the conductor mastery in the right repertoire – there is no-one around who could equal him in this music. The orchestra responded magnificently.

Prom 37 – August 11

Julian Lloyd Webber has been too long away from the Proms and it was good to welcome him back in Holst’s ‘Invocation’ (a Cello Concerto in all but name) with the BBC Philharmonic under Sinaisky. Although the conductor coped well enough, Sinaisky found himself a little out of his depth in English music, as in Frank Bridge’s ‘Rebus’ Overture – equally, a welcome Proms rarity, quite well played, although one could well have imagined a more revelatory account.

The concert ended with Elgar’s ‘Enigma’, again quite well played and conducted but this account did not rise much above the ordinary. It was surprising to see Dejan Lazic, in the first of two appearances this season, playing his transcription of Brahms’s Violin Concerto for piano: this works well, as his recording and broadcasts have shown, but it is unlikely to enter the repertoire. Sinaisky was much better in this work, and the orchestra seemed more involved in this transcription than in the English music in the programme.

Robert Matthew-Walker