Prom 32 had a Celtic twist to it, featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales playing works by Sir Karl Jenkins and Grace Williams. But it also had an international flavour with a dash of Gallic charm from Louise Farrenc, and a huge slab of Germanic, Beethoven-shaped splendour. Overseeing the occasion was Nil Venditti, making her BBC Proms debut and doing so in some style.
Jenkins is 80 this year, an age when one imagines that a composer of his eminence and popularity would have his name shiningly engraved in the annals of the world’s greatest music festival. But, somewhat unbelievably, his music has not previously featured at the Proms. That bizarre omission was brilliantly remedied by a joyous first performance of Stravaganza for saxophone and orchestra, a work bristling with all the elements that have established Sir Karl’s reputation in the public imagination: infectious, life-affirming rhythms; melodic lines that speak to the heart; and a tonal palette rich in tradition and remembrance of things past.
The piece, written for Jess Gillam, references her early experiences at a Carnival Centre. It began with the soloist emerging from the distance, entertaining the crowded streets in the manner of Till Eulenspiegel, and seducing the players in the band to put down their instruments and clap their hands, for the sheer joy of it. Gillam wielded the soprano sax as an instrument for whipping up communal camaraderie and as a weapon for slaying the beasts of the night. Jenkins may have been a late arrival at the Proms party, but once there he enthused and entertained in equal measure.
Standing either side of Stravaganza’s eccentricity were two more first appearances: Williams’ Concert Overture (1932) and Farrenc’s Overture no. 1 in E minor (1834). The former is in a grand style, replete with heroic gestures and florid themes. Venditti accordingly drew from the orchestra bright heraldic colours alternating with vibrant snap-shots of wide-open spaces. It ended with a click of the fingers, as if to say: “There you are!”. Louise Farrenc, in choosing to focus on orchestral and instrumental music at a time when opera monopolised the box-office, clearly backed the wrong horse. Nevertheless, what she has left us deserves to be more widely-known. This piece has a charm reminiscent of the gallant style, and was very gracefully played. Venditti’s facility for phrasing and for highlighting detail was to the fore, teasing from the orchestra a warm sound and a bright demeanour.
Venditti’s arrival at the Proms was crowned with a riveting performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 in A major, conducted without a score. It was evident that she has her own view of the work, seeing it as being in two parts. Thus the second movement followed the first with the deftest segue I have ever witnessed, and the finale was projected as the antitheses of the third movement, with a pause so slight one hardly had time witness the impending change of gear. Within that framework Venditti’s reading had a dramatic sense of purpose. The themes were free of graffiti; the climaxes arrived as expected, but dressed in a style of her choosing; and the melancholic languor of the slow movement reported the composer’s state of mind whilst he was at his desk, but did not ask that he be pitied. When Venditti mounted the podium for an encore all that was played were the last two bars of the symphony. She turned to the arena with a gesture which said, “that’s it!”. And that, indeed, was it.
