Joy, endurance, joining in: BBC Singers’ centenary at the Barbican

Abel Selaocoe and the BBC Singers

Eric Whitacre conducts the BBC Singers

Owain Park conducts the BBC Singers and BBCSO

By Eleanor Knight, 03 October 2024

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“no-one could ignore the outpouring of affection, whoops, cheers and rapturous applause”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 2 October 2024

Bach, Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden (Psalm 117) - motet, BWV230

Traditional, Nagula: extract (arr. Abel Selaocoe)

Rajasekar, Numbers

Zimmer, Chevaliers de Sangreal

Whitacre, Lux Aurumque

Schoenberg, Friede auf Erden, Op.13

Williams, Inform, Educate and Entertain (world premiere)

Bernstein, Chichester Psalms

Dudley, Decadence Waltz

Farrington, On with the show – a whistlestop tour of musicals

Members of the National Youth Choir

Anna Lapwood, Organ

Abel Selaocoe, Cello

BBC Singers

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sofi Jeannin, Chief Conductor

Owain Park, Principal Guest Conductor

Nicholas Chalmers, Associate Conductor: Learning

Eric Whitacre, Conductor

Sakari Oramo, Yeol Eum Son and the BBC Symphony in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 26th March

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

****1

Sakari Oramo and Yeol Eum Son summon up vivid landscapes

Christopher Woodley, 13th March

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

****1

From snow to sludge: Icelandic music at the Barbican Centre

Marat Ingeldeev, 22nd February

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

**111

Fine Lindberg and Stravinsky double bill from the BBC Symphony

Roy Westbrook, 6th February

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time.

****1

UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s unEarth impresses on scale, not substance

Susannah Moody, 23rd January

Wolfe's climate-change oratorio, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, already feels out of date.

**111

Sir James MacMillan delights with his Christmas Oratorio

David Karlin, 19th December

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

*****

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Eleanor Knight

Eleanor is a writer and librettist. Her work has appeared in all kinds of places from the Royal Opera House to the foot tunnels beneath the Elephant and Castle roundabout, and she has written arts reviews and features for British papers and magazines. Having begun her working life in theatre, she switched to publishing and later taught creative writing at the University of Brighton and Birkbeck. Currently based in the Netherlands, she teaches at the University of Utrecht. Eleanor plays violin and sings, though not usually at the same time, and has recently taken up speed-skating.