The Proms concert on August 10 was presented by an orchestra consisting of students from the Juilliard School in New York and the Royal Academy of Music, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, with Vilde Frang as violin soloist. The program consisted of works by three of the most imporant composers of the early twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky (Symphony in Three Movements, 1942-45), Alban Berg (Violin Concerto, 1935, and Béla Bartok, Concerto for Ochestra, 1943-rev 1945).

The Stravinsky, written after his move to California is a reaction not only to the ongoing world war (the program notes quoted Stravinsky in one of his conversation books with Robert Craft saying that the third movement was a ‘musical reaction to the newsreels and documentaries that I had seen of goose-stepping soldiers”) but his relations with business in his new home (the second movement began as sketches for possible music for the movie of Werfel’s The Song of Bernadette). This listener, on hearing the first movement, was reminded of a quote from W. H. Auden that sometimes the mature poet will have need to imitate himself, since it seemed to be a perfect imitation of a Stravinsky piece.

The Berg Concerto, on the other hand is completely first hand, and genuine. The performance was somewhat lacking in terms of its shaping and balancing. The Albert Hall can be especially difficult for a soloist in terms of playing to the hall and that is especially true of the Berg.

For this listener the most convincing performance was of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, It is certainly the most familiar of the three pieces, and that familiarity can cause it to be somewhat taken for granted. This performance made one realize what a very very good piece it is, and brought out all its strengths and, in fact, all of Bartok’s strengths.

If one needed a comparison between a world class, absolutely beyond reproach student orchestra and a thoroughly ‘grown-up,” “professional” one, it was provided the next night by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Conducted by its artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel. The concert began with a staggeringly beautiful performance of the Beethoven Pastorale Symphony, full of beauty of tone, nuance, color, and clarity of articulation and was followed by the first part of the ballet Dante by Thomas Adès, Inferno, the performance of which was equally brilliant.

Dante is a score for a ballet by choreographer Wayne McGregory, a long-time collaborator of Adés. In the first part which was what was played on this concert, Adés uses music of Lizst in much the same way the Stravinsky used the music of Pergolesi in his ballet Pulcinella. Various works of Lizst constitute the content of the work, and can be quoted and orchestrated, but also can be used as source material for music less directly related to specific pieces. The first twelve sections of the work, tracing the circles of hell, build energy leading up to the rousing (described by Venn as showstopping) the Theives, which the audience assumed was the finale, and cheered enthuisatically when it ended. However there was a final circle, Satan, depicting Lucifer trapped in ice, which brought the piece to a conclusion which might well be described as bone chilling. All of the work is brilliantly conceived and realized, with fabulous orchestration, and awesome instrumental writing. To be completely honest, it left this listener a little cold. The audience loved it.


The concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was followed by a late-night Prom given by Evelyn Glennie, the BBC Singers, and the Fantasia Orchestra, conducted by Tom Fetherstonehaugh. There wass also sign language interpretation by Sean Chandler. There was a very wide range of types and styles of music; Glennie, in an interview in the program, described the programming strategy as being like ‘walking through different rooms of human experience.’ The program started with John Coltrane’s Welcome, followed by It Don’t Mean a Thing by Duke Ellington. It went on from there to include music by Morton Feldman (some of Rothko Chapel), Caroline Shaw, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams (Serenade to Music), and Radiohead, including, along the way a piece by Glennie and Philip Sheppard, a first Prom performance of Sandman’s Castle by Vincent Ho, and a first performance of The Wood Pigeon by Héloïse Werner, commissioned by the BBC for this concert, ending up with Meredith Monk’s Panda Chant. The playing and singing by all concerned was wonderful and engaging and the whole experience was refreshing and exhilarating.