Prom 22: BBC Symphony Orchestra / Davis, Royal Albert Hall, London
A reputation for fair play left in tatters
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Amidst Prom programmes that have individually seemed decidedly more random than usual, Nicholas Kenyon's new-music policy has in a few respects appeared welcoming and wise; the 70-year-old Danish composer Per Norgard's long overdue Proms début is one instance. Yet all three orchestral Prom commissions this year are by "mainstream" composers over 40; David Sawer, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Anthony Payne are all frequently heard, and each has several previous Prom performances, including at least one Prom commission, behind him. Whatever happened to the BBC's reputation for adventurousness, to say nothing of fair play?
Payne's Visions and Journeys is the last of this season's commissions. It's his first large orchestral score since his famous "elaboration" of Elgar's Third Symphony, and the Prom on Monday in which it was included, was preceded by a valuable Composer Portrait programme at the Victoria & Albert Museum, allowing us to hear two of Payne's chamber works from the early 1990s, before he "became Elgar" for three years.
Inspired by holidays on the Isles of Scilly, the "visions and dreams" of Payne's new composition share many of the features of his earlier output: a profusion of loosely unfolding contrapuntal lines, for example, whether slow and lyrical or fast and filigree. But in the work's closing stages, what the composer himself calls a new simplification provokes a rather different kind of music: stark, briefly shattering, ultimately haunting.
That ending is apparently brought about by what Payne calls "an unwanted idea" that "tied the piece more strongly to life as I'd lived it during composition". Whatever the personal catalyst, these are the strongest moments in a 20-minute score, which until then seemed to lack its composer's usually sure sense of lyrical purpose and dramatic unfolding. Visions and Journeys received an energetic, if somewhat untidy account by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis.
The audience on Monday increased noticeably in the second half for Evgeny Kissin's performance of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto. I loathed Kissin's attention-seeking digital display and pointless over-emphases, his disdain for this work's subtle symphonic structure and his often coarse tone. Susan Monks' cello solo in the third movement was an oasis of elegance in a desert of crassness; the orchestral playing was on occasions shockingly shoddy. Yet this farrago received rapturous applause, and Kissin gave two encores. Baffling.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments