Prom 35: The Story of Swing

By Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 12 August 2015

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Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 11 August 2015

Clare Teal

Guy Barker, Conductor

Guy Barker Big Band

Winston Rollins, Conductor

Winston Rollins Big Band

Jamie Davis, Vocals

Elaine Delmar, Vocals

Battle of the Bands: Prom 30 at the Royal Albert Hall

Julia Savage, 8th August

This Late Night Prom put together a Battle of the Bands between two groups of musicains to represent the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Basie's and Ellington's bands never in fact battled it out in real life, so this showcased what might have been.

****1

Jurowski marks Hans Werner Henze’s centenary at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 31st May

Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin deliver a lean, razor-sharp exploration of captivity and survival, balancing Beethoven’s and Brahms’ structural clarity against the devastating, high-fidelity distortion of Henze’s Ninth Symphony.

****1

Mischievous Pan at Hong Kong Sinfonietta's French May

Christopher Halls, 30th May

French clarinettist Raphaël Sévère unearths beauty in Nielsen's concerto and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta impress in two settings of Pan's antics at the French May Festival.

****1

Christian Gerhaher: pure poetry in glorious Wigmore Hall recital

Dominic Lowe, 29th May

Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber survey composers from Beethoven to Berg in a varied and deeply moving recital.

*****

Alsop conducts a substitute Marsalis symphony at Carnegie Hall

David Wolfson, 29th May

The premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony no. 5 is postponed, substituted by selections from his Jungle Symphony, along with a disappointing Beethoven’s Seventh at Carnegie Hall.

***11

An azure secret: Yunchan Lim’s star power at Wigmore Hall

Asher Rubenstein, 29th May

The Korean pianist astonishes in Schubert and Scriabin, in a performance sure to be a highlight of Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary festivities.

*****

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Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres is a Bristol-based film composer and classical electronic artist. Alexandra's passion in scoring and as a performer lie in the duality between the classical and electronica worlds, moving picture and her love for the piano. Her music has been described by The White Room Magazine as “majestic, at times monumental…the force and vastness of nature”.

Prom 35: The Story of Swing in the Royal Albert Hall