First night of the Proms 2021

First Night of the Proms 2021

The miracle of the Proms continues as the arts slowly come back to life after months of hell for performers and audiences alike. So the first Prom of the year prompts me to write as I have spasmodically over many years.  I’m a big supporter of the Proms - though I think there’s been a certain desperation on the part of the BBC to explain which I could do without.

I might have enjoyed the first half of this prom if the Radio 3 sound had been better. I recognise it’s impossible to do it as before but the first half sounded too like a zoom call. DS conducted the Vaughan Williams in the pastoral style, rather than his more urgent responses in his later style. The singers - not their fault - were a bit too present.  The Poulenc suffered this fault and, though  played by Daniel Hyde (in the absence of Olivier Latry) there was a problem of enormity. The RAH organ is just too big for the Poulenc concerto as is the hall itself. It was well done but it was not the right instrument for the piece and it did neither justice.

The second half was much better than the first. A new piece by Sir James M is usually an event and although this new piece isn’t quite the earth shaker we have had previously, it was colourful, well done and interesting enough to explore again.

Dalia S has I think a refreshing way with warhorses of the concert hall and her conducting style creates a kind of spontaneous response which refreshes the work and the audience’s ear.  It did not have the tragic thrust that Vänskä gave here many years ago with this orchestra - that shook one’s confidence. It had a creeping certainty. Without the dubious injections of nervous energy which some have given the work, but an unfolding of complete inevitability. I really enjoyed its confidence.

A triumph for all in the end, but let’s hope soon the orchestral sound will regroup and the space be filled with Prommers.