This year’s Proms started with a spontaneous ovation for an ensemble that was not originally going to be there at all: the BBC Singers. Though earmarked for closure earlier this year, the choir enjoyed such an upswell of public support that they were reprieved and restored to the programme. I hope their stay of execution will last.
They joined forces with the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra for a rousing opener: the choral version of Sibelius’s Finlandia (1899, revised 1948), a celebration of what is now Nato’s newest member, and in particular its fight for independence from Russia.
Its fervour, idealism and deep-dug intensity seemed rather topical – and as a whole, this concert was heart-warming for its engagement with today’s burning issues, while simultaneously celebrating the timeless joy of music-making. The two things are perfectly compatible. Who’d have guessed?
And Dalia Stasevska, the BBCSO’s principal guest conductor, is a treasure. Born in Kyiv, raised in Finland, at present heavily pregnant and, in her spare time, busy driving lorries of aid to Ukraine, she has oodles of energy and charisma; her down-to-earth warmth and her delight in the music seems to bring out the best in everybody, the audience included.
The world premiere of Let There Be Light, a BBC commission from the Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak was an incarnation of darkness, evoking the pain of Frolyak’s homeland today, its fragments of melody dwindling down to a last shiver of breath on flute and mark tree.
But the light came next: in Grieg’s Piano Concerto, soloist Paul Lewis – the Liverpudlian pianist who now lives in Grieg’s homeland, Norway – played with stylish poise, relishing the big romantic gestures. He and Stasevska in excellent partnership gave brightness and bounce to the folksy rhythms, ardour aplenty to the big tunes; rarely has the piece sounded so fresh and lovable.
Sibelius’s early cantata Snöfrid, based on Viktor Rydberg’s combative poem, returned us to Finnish heroism. Stasevska and the massed chorus offered lashings of fire and ice; and its narration, exhorting the hero to “wage the unwinnable war”, was delivered with dignity by the glitter-gowned Lesley Manville. (A brief attempt by Just Stop Oil at waging another unwinnable war between pieces was quickly quashed.)
Finally, A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, too rarely performed in such “grown-up” concerts, provided a brilliant display piece for the BBCSO. Many children in the audience seemed enraptured, including a lad of about six who happily conducted along. I think we all came out feeling positively rejuvenated.