United Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [12] – Dukas, Rachmaninov, Bartók: Beatrice Rana (piano), BBC Singers (refrain grasp: Neil Ferris), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Josep Pons (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 8.8.2025. (LJ)
Paul Dukas – La Péri (Poème dansé)
Rachmaninov – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43
Bartók – The Miraculous Mandarin, Op.19
Upon the request of Serge Diaghilev, French composer Paul Dukas composed the ballet La Péri between 1909 and 1911. It was devoted to the Russian Prima ballerina Natacha Trouhanova with Vaslav Nijinsky within the function of Iskender (the Persian title for Alexander the Nice). The work is about Iskender’s seek for immortality, throughout which he meets a Persian Peri who holds a flower of immortality in her arms. Dukas’s composition combines two themes: Iskender’s romantic theme and the orientalist dance of the Peri.
In Le Peri conductor Josep Pons introduced out its romantic theme, indulging Dukas’s fulsome rating by taking an ever so barely slower tempo (the efficiency lasted 19 minutes fairly than the typical of 18 minutes). This gentler tempo was welcome within the part the place violas take the melody, supported by cellos and double basses taking part in pizzicato. After a barely unconvincing opening (maybe because of the omission of the Fanfare), the BBC Symphony Orchestra didn’t disappoint. La Péri is notable for the prominence of harpists (Elizabeth Bass and Daniel de Fry) who added a fairy-tale high quality to the efficiency.
The stage was promptly rearranged to accommodate the Royal Albert Corridor’s Mannequin D Steinway (replete with viewers ‘Heave, ho!’). Beatrice Rana then entered the stage carrying a stunning blue gown and rapidly demonstrated that even probably the most well-known items can carry components of shock. While taking part in a bit as acquainted as Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Op.43) have to be fairly daunting (one thinks of all of the virtuosos who’ve carried out the piece, not too long ago Stephen Hough on the BBC Proms in 2001, 2013, and 2016). Rana appeared unperturbed and her efficiency was assured and recent.
Written in 1934, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody is attribute of the composer’s capability to write down lengthy, superbly phrased melodies that require a pianist to convey a spread of emotion and play at vastly totally different tempi in varied components of the piece. Certainly, it was Rana’s vary of tempi and dynamics from her quicksilver arpeggios in Variation 4 to the shifting Variation 12 (marked Tempo di minuetto) that stood out. The piece may be divided into three sections that correspond with the traditional actions of a concerto: the primary is predominantly quick (Variations 1-10), the second is sluggish (Variations 11-18), and the final is totally vivacious (Variations 19-24). Rana’s efficiency of the ‘Crème de Menthe Variation’ – labelled such as a result of Rachmaninov himself saved a glass of the liquor on the able to calm his nerves earlier than performing the technically fiendish last variation – was spectacular. Rana mixed boldness with sensitivity, wowing the viewers as she leapt throughout the piano with velocity. Nevertheless it was Variation 18 that many of the viewers got here to listen to. Marked Andante cantabile, Rana introduced out the singing high quality of the Variation. There was sensitivity, but in addition a robust sense of path that highlighted the individuality of this Variation with out dropping a way of the composition’s arc.
Performing the Variations as a unified complete requires consideration to the form of the composition and a capability to generate momentum when taking part in. That is the place Rana excelled. Maybe this might be resulting from her time spent finding out composition with Marco Della Sciucca on the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli. (Or maybe the BBC Symphony Orchestra additionally deserve some credit score for the supportive and intentionally uncompetitive function they took.) Evidencing her understanding of the narrative high quality of Rachmaninov’s work, Rana informed Chloe Cutts in an interview printed within the programme notes for the live performance: ‘It’s like a puzzle the place everybody has a bit, and also you don’t get the total image till all of the items are put collectively.’ She added that the work has a ‘compact structure’ that mixes grandiosity with delicacy. Musicologist Geoffrey Norris additionally commented on this architectural high quality, stating that Rachmaninov’s ‘ability as an architect is never exemplified extra clearly than in his group of those 24 variations, finely conceived into a wholly logical and close-knit construction’ (Norris, 1976, p.121). Rana’s efficiency was definitely thematically coherent and highly effective. Her interpretation centered on the Dies Irae theme that seems most prominently in Variations 7, 10, and 24. But, in these Variations there may be humour too, one thing that Rana may incorporate a bit extra in future performances.
Rana confirmed off her lighter aspect when she delighted the viewers with an enthralling and virtuosic encore: Mikhail Pletnev’s 1978 transcription of Tchaikovsky’s March from The Nutcracker Suite, initially composed within the fin de siècle. The piece, composed by one other nice Russian composer, complemented Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody with echoes of dynamic staccatos, spectacular runs, and immediately recognisable melodies. After a efficiency like this, Rana might change into a Proms favorite.
After the interval, the BBC Symphony Orchestra returned to the stage with the BBC Singers to carry out Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin (Op.19). Bartók labored on The Miraculous Mandarin in 1918/19 from notes he made in August 1917. Its eventual orchestration befell in 1923/24. It was not warmly obtained within the composer’s dwelling of Hungary, with the Hungarian Nationwide Opera refusing to carry out it. Subsequently, in August 1950, the work was censored by the Communist Celebration’s division of Agitation and Propaganda resulting from its non-traditional fashion and sexual themes that had been deemed inappropriate for uplifting the lots and banned from Hungarian Radio. Therefore, it might not come as a shock to be taught that the piece has solely loved comparatively current performances on the Proms with Pierre Boulex conducting its first full efficiency in 1984. Its look on this yr’s Proms is definitely, subsequently, welcome!
On this work, ardour supplants humanity, morality, and feeling. Its story was written by Menyhért Lengyel and takes place in an unnamed metropolis over the course of 1 night time. Throughout this eventful night time, three robbers seize a prostitute and use her as bait to entice three unsuspecting males. The primary two males are of no use to the robbers as they’re penniless, however the third, a rich Chinese language man (the Mandarin), is enticed by the prostitute and crushed by the robbers. To their shock, the Mandarin doesn’t die regardless of being suffocated, stabbed, and hung. It’s only when the prostitute offers herself to him that he lastly collapses.
The music is broadly Expressionist, and components of atonality may be heard within the mixture of abrupt rhythms and daring dissonances. Within the efficiency, clarinet (Richard Hosford and Jonathan Parkin) and bass clarinet (Thomas Lessels) solos in addition to the low brass excepts (Helen Vollam and Dan Jenkins on trombone, Joseph Arnold on bass trombone, and Sam Elliott on tuba) had been performed with boldness and readability throughout the three so-called ‘enticement’ scenes which intensify with every iteration. The BBC Singers sounded siren-like as they sung a wordless passage in a minor third interval, representing the Mandarin’s struggling and imminent loss of life. General, Pons demonstrated management and construction in his conducting as he moved between the 6/8 and 5/4 rhythms and drew the viewers’s consideration to Bartók’s themes and recurring characters by accenting what are also known as the piece’s ‘tone patches’.
While The Miraculous Mandarin might not ever attain the crowd-pleaser standing that Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody immediately achieved, its efficiency gave the BBC Symphony Orchestra a possibility to show their ability, vary, and a focus to element.
Lucy Jeffery
