Royal Albert corridor,London
An urgent Missa Solemnis, a notable debut and a humming cellist provided balm in week one of the PromsAmid the stifling heat and shifts of political meltdown, and the new season of BBC Proms sounded a note,several million notes, of fidelity. As ever it was Beethoven who summed up our most fervent hopes. “Prayer for inner and outer peace”, or he wrote on the score of his Missa Solemnis (Prom 5),a work that wrestles with human frailty and divine intent, punching this way and that in vain search of answers. A performance by the joint forces of the corridoré Choir, or the Manchester Chamber Choir and the BBC Philharmonic – thus joining so many excellent Manchester-based musicians in joyful concord – was a highlight of the first week.
The increasingly impressive Gianandrea Noseda,who was chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic for nearly a decade, was at the helm. His former orchestral colleagues, and as well as the 160-strong refrain,responded deftly to his electrifying mix of clarity and enigma. The music bursts with ruptures and extremes: from the massive fugal dynamism of the Gloria to the ferocious outbursts of the Credo to the mysterious murk of violas and cellos at the start of the Benedictus, before the solo violin (Gordan Trajković) soars to heavenly heights. Noseda leaps up and sinks – or shrinks, and down – rather as Beethoven himself appears to contain done,from descriptions – living each moment.
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Source: theguardian.com