Music
Sorting out the summer
Peter Phillips selects the best of this year's Proms concerts The arrival of the annual Prom prospec- tus in the nation's bookshops is traditional- ly the moment to sort out one's summer. In this 97th season there are to be 67 concerts between 19 July and 14 September, all in the Albert Hall. Eleven of these include at least one piece by Mozart; several of them consist of nothing but Mozart, most notably the Glyndebourne Festival Opera's production of La clemenza di Tito on 25 August and WNO's Idomeneo on 13 Sept- ember. Other anniversarians do not figure so prominently; but Prokofiev (b.1891) has eight works performed this year and Sir Arthur Bliss (also b.1891) two. Jacob Handl (d.1591) is ignored, of course.
Although few of the Mozart items (apart from two arias, a Creed and a reconstruc- lion) are being heard at the Proms for the first time, the list of what and who are making their debuts contains some real surprises. The most famous omission has always been the Berlin Philharmonic. Was it Karajan or was it money which kept them away all those years? Since the BBC is probably no richer than it was before, the answer must be Karajan; yet Oxford gave him a doctorate which he came to collect in person. I never understood that. The Berlin Philharmonic appears under Claudio Abbado on 26 August in a pro- gramme which includes Brahms's Second Piano Concerto played by Alfred Brendel and Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the soprano Cheryl Studer. The price structure for this concert is in a category by itself (C, to be precise), with the best seats costing twice as much as on any other night except the Last. The Arena Promenade remains at £2.50 for this as for every concert in the series; the season ticket for Promenaders works out at £1.42 per concert, which really is remarkable.
Another significant omission in the past has been the virtuoso violinist Gidon Kremer. He will play with the City of Birmingham Orchestra under Rattle on 4 September, giving the first Prom perfor- mance of a concerto which was written for him by Sofia Gubaidulina, entitled Offertorium. This programme will also include Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony. Whilst
on the subject of special performers, Sidonie Goossens will play the harp solo on the Last Night in her own arrangement of the traditional song 'The Last Rose of Summer'. At 89 she is apparently the sole member of Boult's original BBC Symphony Orchestra still to be playing and the oldest artist ever to perform at the Proms.
Amongst the compositions receiving their first Prom performances is Bern- stein's Chichester Psalms. This will be given, along with the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, on 12 September by the LSO under Tilson Thomas in commemora- tion of the composer's death last year. Bernstein's Second Symphony, 'The Age of Anxiety', will also be played on 24 July by the Bournemouth SO under Andrew Lytton. Mendelssohn's Elijah incredibly makes its debut on 4 August in the hands of the BBC SO under Andrew Davis: sure- ly Henry Wood, or someone like him, had a go at this old warhorse in the past? Sir Michael Tippett's Byzantium receives its European premiere on 6 September, hav- ing previously been heard in Chicago and New York. My special tip for a good evening would be the Orchestre de Paris under Semyon Bychkov playing Henri Dutilleux's Second Symphony on 2 September. Their programme will also include Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. BBC commissions this year have gone to: Hugh Wood (10 September), Martin Dalby (17 August), Nicholas Maw (23 July), Peter Paul Nash (30 August) and Martin Butler (12 August). Robin Holloway will hear his Horn Concerto (not for the first time) played by Barry Tuckwell on 26 July.
In his introduction to the prospectus John Drummond says that the absence of an overall theme this year is a reflection 'of our growing belief in the need to pro- gramme the widest range of music'. I am alarmed by this disingenuous remark, despite applauding the lack of a theme and admiring the choice of works which has been made. It will not escape anyone's attention that 90 per cent of the music in this year's festival, even more than in last year's, was written after 1750. Bach and Handel, for example, have wretched show- ings, let alone yet earlier names. I do not mind this if it means a more varied selec- tion from the later repertories, but there is no evidence that year on year the planners are pursuing a policy of exploring more and more widely. That sentence suggests that truth is being sacrificed to a slogan.
Drummond goes on to say how much he regrets that the privately owned boxes in the Albert Hall are empty when people have to be turned away if the remainder of the Hall has been sold out. He appeals to the owners of these seats to make them available, pointing out that everyone would gain financially if they did. Since last year the average attendance at the concerts was 86 per cent, it follows that on numerous occasions the building must have been more than full. If you know anyone who owns a box at the Albert Hall, please apply a little pressure in a worthwhile cause.
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