Majestic in voice, massive in stature, Bryn Terfel effortlessly hijacked the Last Night of the Proms. The only thing ever likely to upstage the mighty Welsh bass-baritone was his own costumes.
Before the concert I did wonder why one of Beethoven’s worst works – the Choral Fantasy for piano (played by a diffident Hélène Grimaud), chorus and orchestra – had been inserted into Terfel’s selection of opera solos.
He was back in concert dress for a beautifully sustained account of Vaughan Williams’s Silent Noon and an overextended, if mellifluous, medley of national songs arranged by Chris Hazell. But then he produced an astonishing bespoke creation – a white suit embroidered back and front with the Welsh dragon – to lead us in Rule, Britannia.
Nothing could compete with that. But Anna Meredith’s new work, called froms , came close. The 30-year-old Scot utilised not only the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus in the hall, but (thanks to satellite links) hundreds of other BBC musicians across Britain, who stomped with wild, not-quite-synchronised abandon for an action-packed five minutes. Short, sharp and sassy, froms presented minimalist riffs with maximalist forces. I enjoyed it, though there was bemusement around me.
Otherwise, it was business not quite as usual. We had Henry Wood’s Fanfares, but not his Fantasia on Sea Songs – so no Hornpipe clap-along. But Sir Roger Norrington did give us the traditional encore of Land of Hope and Glory, prefaced with one good joke. “Can you sing with a bit more vibrato, please?” asked the conductor, who caused a minor musicological furore this season by getting his strings to play Elgar without any vibrato at all.
The Proms’ penultimate night was a disappointment. Gianandrea Noseda can be effective in repertoire that suits his Mr Whippy conducting technique. He demonstrated all too clearly on Friday that this repertoire doesn’t include Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Alhough there were spirited contributions from the BBC Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, I cannot recall a Ninth so lacking in understanding or gravitas.
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