Prom 13: London Philharmonic and Choir/Jurowski, Royal Albert Hall, review: 'Trudgingly routine'

Michael Church finds that a work by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, commissioned to act as an introduction to Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony, has nothing in common with the master

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms (Chris Christodoulou)

You have to admire the nerve of it: Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg has accepted a commission to compose a work that will act both as an introduction to Beethoven’s “Choral” symphony, and as a freestanding work in its own right. His justification was his belief that contemporary music could “find a way to enjoy the same rhetorical excitement as that enjoyed by the classical composers”. The resulting work, Two Episodes, would be “saturated” by the falling fifths and dotted rhythms of Beethoven’s masterpiece.

Both of its movements began like fanfares, but the textures were muddy, with phrases overlapping untidily; there was nothing remotely Beethovenian about it, and what faint historical echoes one heard were to Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Stravinsky’s Orpheus; the prevailing tone was a random discursiveness.

When Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic launched into the Beethoven itself, one realised how diametrically opposed Lindberg’s work was to its great exemplar: it had none of Beethoven’s economy and chiselled force. But this realisation was followed by another one – that conductor and orchestra had expended all their energies on learning the Lindberg: I’ve never heard the first movement of the Ninth sound so tepid, so trudgingly routine. The four soloists were efficient, but not amazing; only the superb London Philharmonic Choir redeemed the evening.