Hurling all into the ether, detonating every orchestral sound he could muster, William Walton achieved a feat of whirring ingenuity in his Symphony No 1 (1931-5). The giddy first movement, now sour, now tumultuous; the malicious presto; the melancholy respite of the third movement: each compels, but nothing matches the hair-raising abundance of the finale, from its first, eddying ascent to the assault of the six thunderous chords that bring it to a close. In last weekend’s Proms performance by the Sinfonia of London, in front of a capacity crowd, the music spat and hissed, sprinted and cajoled, counterpoint gleaming and clear, rhythmic detail bang on. Each player seemed to tug at a metaphorical leash, not to urge the speed but to push their own vigour to its limit.
This is as the Sinfonia’s founder (in its modern incarnation) and conductor, John Wilson, expects. Charisma is part of it: he wears it lightly. An incisive musical brain, a dedication to detail and an ability to instil loyalty count for more. All his hand-picked players are committed elsewhere, many as section principals in the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Hallé, the Britten Sinfonia – to name randomly – or as chamber musicians, in quartets or wind, brass or percussion ensembles. From the middle section of the orchestra, second violins and violas shone, with sinewy tone and absolute confidence. The Sinfonia’s string sound now rivals the best.
The concert opened with Lili Boulanger’s short D’un matin de printemps (1917-18), her last completed work. Its sensuous, gauzy opening – strings divided to create a textural haze, with elegant solos from the orchestra’s youthful leader, Charlie Lovell-Jones – unfurls into bright, rhapsodic daylight. As part of the continuing Rachmaninov anniversary celebration, the other work was his Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, with Alim Beisembayev stepping in as soloist at late notice. This Kazakhstan-born 25-year-old won the 2021 Leeds piano competition with more Rachmaninov – the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (played with meticulous brilliance by Yuja Wang, with Klaus Mäkelä conducting, at the previous week’s Proms). Beisembayev has a natural affinity with the Russian composer, though at times more projection was needed to conquer the Albert Hall’s fickle acoustic (always adding the conditional “from where I was sitting”. Listening back on BBC Sounds, there are no such issues.) With vigilant support from Wilson, and rich, luminous playing from the orchestra, the pianist approached the work as an intimate exchange between soloist and ensemble: no swagger, no indulgence, but clarity and lyricism to warranted excess.
Glyndebourne’s annual Proms appearance, with Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (reviewed in June), drew another packed house. The essence of Barrie Kosky’s production remained in this semi-staging by Donna Stirrup, its engrossing physicality still intact but the emphasis now on immediacy and storytelling. The cast, led by Sally Matthews, Katarina Dalayman, Golda Schultz, Karen Cargill and Florie Valiquette, was yet more impressive than on Glyndebourne’s first night. If that occasion had felt intense, the engrossed silence of 6,000 people in the Albert Hall was still more potent. Robin Ticciati, conducting, shaped the work, pitted as it is with stops and starts, with authority and conviction. Being able to see, as well as hear, the excellent London Philharmonic Orchestra made Poulenc’s orchestration all the more strange and ingenious, full of homage to other composers, yet unlike anything else. This was a superb, if unnerving Prom.
This year’s Oxford piano festival was dedicated to the memory of Menahem Pressler, that much loved chamber musician – for half a century, pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio – as well as soloist, who died in May aged 99. Eight concerts form the backbone of the week-long event, but public masterclasses are its lifeblood. Some dozen emerging artists, mostly in their mid-20s – Beisembayev is among past participants – work with top soloists. I heard the American-Russian Kirill Gerstein, whose mastery of the Liszt B minor Sonata made every complexity lucid, every harmonic tussle a miraculous transformation; and Nikolai Lugansky, whose all-Rachmaninov programme combined refinement, finesse and classical restraint with heat and passion. Gerstein played in the Sheldonian theatre, Lugansky in Christ Church Cathedral.
In the final concert of the festival, Jeremy Denk, the American with a gift for offering a pithy, musically enlightening paragraph before he plays – neither too much nor too little – performed four Bach partitas, numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6, at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. His ability to reveal the variety, the impish wit, the creativity in each of these dance-based works made them pass all too quickly. The majesty and grandeur of No 6, which Denk played with utmost control but also the freedom of an improvisation, was a spellbinding climax. He had planned to play all six, a marathon that, alas, exceeded the live music time allotted by the church authorities. Whether to help himself, or us, come down from this Bach firmament, Denk signed off in a different mood with a Scott Joplin encore: languid, insouciant, full of syncopations, not so far from the kind that had gripped us all evening.
Star ratings (out of five)
Prom 30 ★★★★★
Prom 31 ★★★★★
Oxford piano festival ★★★★★
Prom 30 will be broadcast on BBC Four on 25 August. All Proms are available on BBC Sounds. The Proms continue until 9 September.
Jeremy Denk’s Oxford recital is available to stream here. You can also watch Kirill Gerstein’s masterclass at the Oxford piano festival, and Nikolai Lugansky’s.
