Category Archives: In concert

Arcana at the BBC Proms – Ultimate Calm

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Alice Boyd (soundscapes, synthesizers, vocals), Belle Chen (piano, synthesizers), Lucinda Chua (cello, vocals), Erland Cooper (electronics, piano, presenter, tape machines), Katherine Tinker (piano, synthesizers), Isobel Waller-Bridge (piano), BBC Symphony Chorus, City of London Sinfonia / Alexandra Wood (violin)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 20 August 2026

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC /

The role of classical music in modern society is changing. With the need to ‘unwind’ greater than ever before, thanks to an age of conflict, hardship and technology –  constant visual and audio bombardment from our devices, among many other things – there is a space where calm and undemanding music can make its understated mark.

This can of course happen in operas and substantial Prom concerts, but that Radio 3 should introduce Unwind, their digital counterpart to the main station, says a lot about the mental health of our generation and our short attention span, constantly fraying at the edges as we deal with anxieties, the media and too much attention to social media (I’m speaking for myself here!)

Ultimate Calm is a programme residing on the new channel, beginning on Radio 3 itself under the guidance of the well-qualified Olafur Arnalds before finding its new spiritual home. So how do the BBC Proms achieve ultimate calm, and is it better in person or experienced at home?

The first sounds on arriving in the arena at the Royal Albert Hall were those of blackbirds, surely the idea of Orcadian composer and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper – who, as a regular Unwind contributor, curated this Prom. The music was in the most part enhanced by the birdsong and other field recordings, reminding us of the importance and appreciation of natural beauty.

The published programme proved helpful to a point, listing the pieces but not in the order they were performed. Cooper’s music secured a sonorous and comforting start, his Music for Growing Flowers (Nocturne) presented in a new arrangement blossoming like its subject. The yearning tones of the BBC Symphony Chorus were supplemented by cleverly wrought percussion with the hands imitating rain and wind and complemented by the soft bed of City of London Sinfonia strings.

This curtain raiser / light dimmer was the first work of what became a streaming playlist in live form, with little between the tracks save for field recordings, allowing the listener to picture a natural space. The musical language was largely simple – not a criticism – as it allowed the mind to wander, and – ultimately – to unwind.

Pianist Belle Chen chose well with her pieces, two excerpts from the excellent Ravel In The Forest album that included evocative forest noises from a synthesizer positioned on top of the piano. Moonrise, the first excerpt, leant on Barber’s Adagio for Strings for its inspiration and proved effective in this context.

Lucinda Chua’s cello (above) then explored rich, multitracked sonorities on I Left the Earth, while a vocal number, Something Other Than Years, provided a musical affirmation with its catchphrase, “show me how to live this life”. At this point, even allowing for the plaintive Symbiosis from Alice Boyd (below) and the deep resonance of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s A Pile of Dust, we were walking a fine line between background and foreground music, the audience a mixture of calm and fidgeting, as though in the half hour before sleep. Oddly, the unwinding music also drew vivid parallels with coffee shop culture rather than the Royal Albert Hall.

Standing out in the foreground was the craftsmanship of Finzi, Sibelius and Debussy. Finzi’s gorgeous Romance stole the show in a passionate performance from the string orchestra, who also captured the warmth of Sibelius’s Andante Festivo along with its elusive emotions. Meanwhile a sensitive arrangement by Erland Cooper of Debussy’s Clair de Lune also hit the spot, with a special solo from cellist Will Schofield. The City of London Sinfonia strings played dreamily under the direction of Alexandra Wood, the 55-year-old ensemble infrequent Proms visitors but extremely welcome here. The BBC Symphony Chorus, used more sparingly, contributed a brief but moving Abendlied from Josef Rheinberger.

The principal problem with experiencing such a Prom in the flesh was the approach of the midnight hour, and with it the anxiety that the last form of transport home was imminent, making it impossible to unwind completely. With this in mind your correspondent took his leave just as a world premiere was beginning, a new arrangement of Isobel Waller-Bridge’s Solitudes (after Satie) for two pianos, wordless choir and string orchestra. Listening back on BBC Sounds, it proved an affecting piece whose ripples spread out far beyond the hall with waves of wordless singing from the chorus.

As an advert for Radio 3 Unwind, this concert was a strong promotion and will hopefully propel the right audience to its channel. As a way into classical music it is persuasive and low maintenance, especially with the natural link. Yet it is to be hoped such an audience can blossom in the way of Erland Cooper’s flowers, encouraged to explore more substantial works by the composers whose relaxing sounds they have heard. Debussy, Ravel and Sibelius in particular have all written music with great kinetic energy! Yet that is for another day…for this Prom, sensitively staged if somewhat out of place for the live visitor, will leave a lasting legacy online.

Repertoire:
Cooper Music for Growing Flowers (Nocturne)
Belle Chen Ravel In The Forest: Moonrise; Three Birds
Finzi Romance for string orchestra
Lucinda Chua I Left the Earth; Something Other Than Years
Jóhannsson A Pile of Dust
Sibelius Andante festive
Rheinberger Abendlied
Alice Boyd Symbiosis
Debussy arr Cooper Clair de Lune (Suite bergamasque)
Isobel Waller-Bridge Solitudes (after Satie)

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026.

Published post no.2,998 – Friday 28 August 2026

Arcana at the BBC Proms – Miles Davis Centenary

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Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Taylor Eigsti (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass), Kendrick Scott (drums), BBC Concert Orchestra / Miho Hazama

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 20 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) BBC / Andy Paradise

Commemorating Miles Davis in the year of his centenary was an obvious inclusion for this year’s Proms, and tonight’s concert more than fulfilled its remit through focussing on those seminal albums when Davis collaborated with multi-faceted pianist and arranger Gil Evans.

While no single event could do justice to a legacy the scale and scope of Davis’s, the present selection made sense with its often expansive arrangements being ideally suited to the Royal Albert Hall acoustic not least through what were, for the most part, idiomatic orchestrations by Miho Hazama. Moreover, the layout with trumpet, piano, bass and drums soloists arrayed at the front of the platform worked to the advantage of both this music as of these musicians.

1959’s Porgy and Bess still offers a pertinent overview of Gershwin’s opera even if trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire took time to settle in Bess, you is my woman now – his playing not so much intimate as tentative. Segueing into Evans’s simmering Gone saw him find his groove, not least via a stunning break by drummer Kendrick Scott. An expressive if (thankfully) never cloying Summertime gave Akinmusire requisite breathing-space, while I loves you, Porgy (aka I wants to stay here) brought out the luminosity of Evans’s arrangement along with its dextrous contribution by pianist Taylor Eigsti (an inspired late replacement for Sam Harris).

Although compiled from earlier sessions, 1957’s Birth of the Cool was hardly less influential on release yet, (over-)embellished by Hazama, Little Variations on ‘Boplicity’ was a little too knowing for its own good. Nor did her blowzy orchestration of the sensuous Blue in Green suggest 1959’s Kind of Blue as being other than quintet music, but her book-ending of Falla’s capricious Will o’ the Wisp with his malevolent Dance of Terror or inexorable Ritual Fire Dance created an El amor brujo medley for the BBC Concert Orchestra to come into its own.

After the interval, 1957’s Miles Ahead was represented by the segueing of Weill’s My Ship – Akinmusire doing justice to Davis’s soulful flugelhorn playing – into the title-track with its evocative modal writing and restive atmosphere necessarily unresolved at the close. 1963’s Quiet Nights is the last of and the ‘Cinderella’ among these Davis/Evans collaborations, but their take on Once Upon a Summertime brings eloquence to this overly sentimental ballad abetted here by Hazama’s orchestration. She and the BBCCO took a break while the quartet, notably Harish Raghavan’s smouldering bass solo, impressed in Akinmusire’s Henya from his 2023 album Owl Song. It was left for the ‘Adagio’ from Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez to close the programme with a pathos that no amount of ‘coffee-table’ overkill could efface.

A programme that, whatever its unevenness, confirmed the relevance of these albums almost seven decades on. Soloists and orchestra reconvened for a propulsive take on Ahmad Jamal’s New Rumba (from Miles Ahead) that saw this evening through to a scintillating conclusion. Hopefully more such events will take place at the Proms, maybe one centred on the music and arrangements of George Russell who – despite his being absent from Alyn Shipton’s otherwise admirable programme essay – made so much of post-bop jazz not just possible but inevitable.

Pieces performed as follows (all arrangements by Miho Hazama)

Gershwin arr. Evans Porgy and Bess – Bess, you is my woman now (1935, arr. 1958)
Evans Gone (1958)
Gershwin Porgy and Bess – Summertime (1935, arr. 1958); Porgy and Bess – Porgy and Bess – I loves you, Porgy (1935, arr. 1958)
Davis/Evans (arr. Hazama) Little Variations on ‘Boplicity’ (1949, arr. 2026)
Davis/B. Evans Blue in Green (1959, arr. 2026)
Falla arr. Evans/Hazama El amor brujo (1914-16, arr. 1959/2026)
Weill arr. Evans Lady in the Dark – My Ship (1940, arr. 1957)
Davis/Evans Miles Ahead (1957)
Barclay/Legrand/Marnay arr. Evans Once Upon a Summertime (1954, arr. 1962)
Rodrigo arr. Evans Concierto de Aranjuez – Adagio (1939, arr. 1959)

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026, and you can watch on BBC iPlayer

Published post no.2,991 – Saturday 22 August 2026

Arcana at the BBC Proms – Soloists, Epiphoni Consort, BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra / Nil Venditti: Respighi & Rossini

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Federica Lombardi (soprano), Chiara Amarù (mezzo-soprano), Dave Monaco (tenor), Nicola Ulivieri (bass), Epiphoni Consort, BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra / Nil Venditti

Respighi Church Windows (Vetrate di chiesa) (1925-26)
Rossini Stabat Mater (1831-1841)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Friday 7 August 2026

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Mark Allan

Friday night is Italian night at the BBC Proms, it would seem. Two weeks after John Wilson’s blistering account of Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, we had a sequel of sorts headed by Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti, marshalling a double bill from Respighi and Rossini, a composer he much admired.

As we heard two weeks back, Respighi was no shrinking violet when writing for orchestra, a point reemphasised by this first Proms performance of Church Windows. This is the sort of orchestral music on which the Royal Albert Hall thrives – descriptive, colourful, bold, brash in places but beautifully controlled in others. One of these moments was Adam Lee’s clarinet solo, exquisitely spun.

Less obviously demonstrative than the Roman poems, Church Windows nonetheless softened the heart with its invocations of Gregorian chants and chorales, woven into Respighi’s writing. Not all were successful in performance, the horn theme of San Michele Arcangelo taking a while to align with Venditti’s tempo, but this movement grew into a tumultuous finish, the tam-tam describing Satan’s fall from heaven. A tender account of Il mattutino di Santa Chiara (The Matins of St Clare) found the BBC SO woodwind on fine form, but the finale, San Gregorio Magno (St Gregory the Great) carried all before it, Richard Pearce’s barnstorming organ solo briefly smothering the orchestra before a brilliantly manoeuvred climax. Once again, the ears were ringing, and while this may not have registered so highly on the Richter scale, it was nonetheless a qualified triumph.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater is similarly unconventional. Its long gestation period would suggest a creative block, but the final composition, finished after a decade, is a profound utterance. Venditti kept things moving here, and with an evident love for the piece, from the solemn choral intoning of the Stabat mater dolorosa itself, through the sequence of arias which found the soloists taking a little while to adjust to the acoustic of the hall. A healthy balance was found, though bass Nicola Ulivieri, a commanding presence, was appreciably louder than his three colleagues – each of whom were dramatic in their responses to the text. Tenor Dave Monaco nailed his top notes with impressive precision in the Cujus animam gementem, soprano Federica Lombardi was bright and commendably unforced with the chorus throughout Inflammatus et accensus, while mezzo-soprano Chiara Amarù shone in the Fac, ut portem Christi mortem.

Yet the real stars of this performance were the London-based Epiphoni Consort, making their Proms debut, and the BBC Symphony Chorus, both extremely well drilled and of one voice. The antiphonal exchanges of ‘Paradisi gloria’ in the Quando corpus morietur section were memorable, but the crowning glory was the ‘Amen’ finale, where Rossini – and the charismatic Venditti – let loose in the thrilling tour de force of powerful counterpoint. A special mention for timpanist Antoine Bedewi, too, whose role throughout was critical. This was the choir’s to bring home, however, and they delivered with style and panache, convincing audience and listeners of Rossini’s original inspiration and dramatic instinct. A refreshingly different Prom, and how good to hear two less familiar but deserving works in performances that made them shine.

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026.

Published post no.2,977 – Saturday 8 August 2026

In concert – National Youth Orchestra / Thomas Adès: Transcend – Liszt, Adès & Berlioz

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National Youth Orchestra / Thomas Adès

Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S110 No. 2 (1856-61)
Adès Dante, Part 2: Purgatorio (2019-20)
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Op.14 (1830)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 5 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Tom Morley

If there is little space remaining on an extended Symphony Hall platform, the National Youth Orchestra is the likely reason. Tonight saw the start of its annual summer tour with a typically demanding programme that played to the strengths of some 150 players in no small measure.

All three of these pieces are focussed upon a journey of unforeseen consequences, not least Liszt’s First Mephisto Waltz. Setting a swift tempo for its propulsive initial section, Thomas Adès ensured the performance had the measure of this and of those halting evocations at its centre. If the sudden build-up to its climax felt a little tentative, the ensuing pensiveness and hectic coda (this being the more familiar loud ending) found these musicians comfortably in control. A showpiece with substance that deserves to regain its popularity from former times.

Adès’s ballet Dante has been often heard on stage or in concert. Its central Purgatorio makes a journey from out of darkness towards light, recordings of three sung prayers made the basis for its musical evolution. This would be fine were that evolution more varied in progress and more cumulative in impact. As it was, samples of this chanting were elaborated by woodwind and brass, singly or in ‘choirs’, before drawing to a climax on full orchestra. That this process was several times repeated would not have mattered had it been less systematic or predictable, while the actual writing had (surprisingly) little subtlety or finesse to offset its brazen impact. Whatever Adès’s orchestral command or the NYO’s commitment in realizing it, the result felt not so far removed from Wojciech Kilar’s folk-inspired symphonic poems half a century ago.

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is a work that has featured often on NYO schedules, but its music is tailor-made for an orchestra with not a few aspiring professionals to demonstrate its capabilities, and the present performance did not disappoint. Favouring relatively swift tempi, Adès steered an impulsive if never wayward course through Rêveries – Passions; at its best in the approach to a searing climax followed by its pensive ‘come down’. He found the right balance between elegance and ecstasy in Un bal (but this was not a waltz for dancing), then traversed Scène aux champs with due focus on that mounting despair which emerges out of then returns to the soulful isolation either side. The thunder effects of multiple timpani at its close were well realized, while the cor anglais (Leah Wiseman) summoned a melting pathos.

Steady if not unduly portentous (with, as in the first movement, its repeat included), ‘Marche au supplice’ made a properly baleful impact – not least through the addition of military drums after the fall of the guillotine – but it was a pity Adès did not head straight into Songe d’une nuit de sabbat, whose initial silence then feels more deafening. That said, he had the measure of its sardonic parodies of earlier themes, evocations of gothic horror and fugal orgies on the way to an apotheosis during which the NYO gave its collective all then some more besides.

The result was a performance that could not have failed to impress those unfamiliar with this singular work. Doubtless the programme overall will sound equally impressive with the NYO repeating in at Snape Maltings tomorrow evening, then at the Royal Albert Hall this Saturday.

To read more about the NYO’s 2026 summer tour, visit the NYO website – and click on the name to read more about composer & conductor Thomas Adès

Published post no.2,971 – Friday 7 August 2026

In concert – Three Choirs Festival: Adrian Partington conducts Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’

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John Findon (tenor), Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo-soprano), David Ireland (bass-baritone), Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Adrian Partington

Wagner Parsifal – Prelude to Act One (1878)
Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 (1899-1900)

Gloucester Cathedral
Saturday 1 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo credits (c) James O’Driscoll

Closing this latest edition of the Three Choirs Festival with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius felt both inevitable and fitting, given its seminal place in the annals of the English choral tradition as of this festival, in what proved if not an unblemished then certainly a memorable realization.

Hearing this work now is to feel surprise how, aside from aspects of Cardinal Newman’s text, its musical treatment could have seemed so problematic whether technically or interpretively. Maybe the musical lineage on which it drew being not yet fully assimilated by musicians and listeners, or its contrasts between life and after-death being so emotionally charged, presented challenges to be overcome only with time and perseverance. If such were the case, then those challenges have certainly been met in the 124 years since its first hearing at the Three Choirs.

Allotting the vocalists so they merge into a balanced and complementary whole is a task this evening’s performance met convincingly. John Findon (above) brought fervour and an immediacy to Gerontius which never threatened overkill. Witness the assured pacing of his ‘Sanctus fortis’ solo so it dominated the opening part without undermining the latter’s formal and expressive trajectory; or the respective poise and fervour of ‘I went to sleep’ and ‘Take me away’, at the start then climax of the second part, in furthering overall dramatic flow.

A little too detached initially, Niamh O’Sullivan (above, with Findon) duly entered into the persona of the Angel such that ‘Softly and gently’ exuded an affecting poise. Starkly implacable as the Priest, David Ireland (below) brought to Angel of the Agony an understatement preferable to that wanton rhetoric often encountered.

Few such works have so extensive and varied a choral component as Gerontius, in which the Three Choirs Festival Chorus did not disappoint. Thus the distant response of the Assistants, menacing aggression of the Demons, accumulating power of the Angelicals in their majestic ‘Praise to the Holiest’ or ethereal chant of the Souls in Purgatory were all characterized with the requisite insight. Nor was the Philharmonia found wanting in Elgar’s always resourceful though often demanding orchestral writing, notably a Prelude such as unfolded purposefully towards its eloquent culmination. Here, as throughout, Adrian Partington (below) gave notice of his deep knowledge of and unfailing involvement with this score – not least when bringing out those sombre if luminous hues as were a hallmark of the composer’s orchestration forthwith.

Orchestral and conductor were also at one when delineating the hieratic mystery or grandeur of the Prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal. Its inclusion prior to Gerontius has often found favour in recent years yet, other than pointing up that debt which Elgar repaid handsomely in his own terms, it hardly seems necessary given the emotional scope or inclusiveness of what follows. If it is included then better, surely, to play this piece without its Act One ‘resolution’ then go straight into the Elgar to point up their conceptual connection and ensure cohesion forthwith.

Attendees at the performance had the benefit of programme notes by Martin Lee-Browne – author, authority on British music (not least Delius) and one-time Chairman of Gloucester Three Choirs – whose presence at and contributions to this festival will be greatly missed.

To read more about the 2027 festival in Worcester, head to the Three Choirs Festival website. Click on the names for more on the artists in this concert – tenor John Findon, mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, bass-baritone David Ireland, the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Adrian Partington

Published post no.2,954 – Monday 6 July 2026