UK’s most beloved classical music festival celebrates the genius of the Russian composer by performing one his lushest works, as well as the premiere of a new contemporary piece. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the concert, to gives us all the details about this ambitious rendition by one of the most acclaimed orchestras in the world.
To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist. Schumman’s wistful melodies may have not dazed the air of last Friday’s Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, but the sharpness of his craftsmanship surely shed some inspiring light on what was, no doubt, a night to remember. As London’s most popular classical music event takes its final sprint to its (almost religious to watch) grand finale, the 2023 season seems to dangle several more treats all through the track.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra plays History in reverse by returning to the motherland through pompous fanfare – let’s hope they’ve got acclimatized to humour (note the extra “u”) as of now… Performing Prokofiev’s passion-driven 5th Symphony as the crowning point of their rendition, this unequalable occasion has been bestowed with a few more trinkets with a similar shade of flicker – the results of a laboriously honed interpretation under Andris Nelsons’s confident, sage baton.
Prom 52 also marks the European premiere of Julia Adolphe’s Makeshift Castle, a sumptuous opus woven through cinematographic textures – intricately assembling bricks of storytelling in our minds through the influences of iconic film scoring styles such as Williams and Snow. The magical zest of the evening gradually takes a more introspective undertone through the playing of Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration – a blast of transcendent and transformative emotions whose deluge is however tempered by the group’s technical excellence – and finally, deep commitment and understanding as for what music, in its entirety, is truly about.
There’s not a sole excerpt that’s remotely bland or uninspired. There’s not a second, bar or note where the phrasing ever goes down. Every single snippet is treated with incredible elaborateness, refreshing care and, on the top, profound knowledge of what the piece and, all in all, this craft means. All the orchestra sections, performing to the upmost display of their ability, create a new set of harmonies by bringing out each layer to a tuneful balance of detail, narration and unity. It’s not a different level that both the pieces and audiences have been taken to, but a whole new reality of sentiment and beauty.
Drawing out the fevorous spirit of the season’s closing installment, Prom 52 has served as an encore of its own by providing us with an evening of artistic sublimity. Evenly combining romance and logic into, ultimately, a most heartfelt performance, their execution has perfectly articulated the rules of musicality by letting its repertoire soar free. It didn’t sing. It spoke instead.
The Proms continue to play at the Royal Albert Hall until 7 September. Tickets for all the upcoming concerts are available on the following link.