Jingling Johnny at Prom 62

I took my daughter to the Proms to hear Mariss Jansons conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in two symphonies: Haydn’s no. 100, the ‘Military’ and Shostakovich’s 10th.

Both of these works have an in-your-face quality, with an occasional need for shrill, piercing woodwind, which the RCO delivered admirably. There was a theatrical element to the Haydn when some of the percussionists trooped off, Farewell Symphony-style, at the end of the second movement. I wondered whether their contracts allowed them to leave if they weren’t required in the rest of the work, but they reappeared at the very end, walking on stage in a line, with the player at the back waving a contraption which looked like a two-tier cake stand covered in bells and with a couple of tassels dangling from it. I gather that the official English name for this instrument is a ‘Jingling Johnny’.

The Turk inspired the Haydn symphony, but in the Shostakovich you can feel the menacing presence of a Georgian. This symphony is very much in favour and frequently performed, while the Leningrad seems to be taking a back seat at the moment. I heard no. 10 at the Proms three years ago, and while that performance was perfectly creditable, this one surpassed it, not least because of the variety of controlled tone from woodwind (especially in the long, rambling solo melodies Shostakovich loves to write) and brass. I think in particular of the final horn call in the solo movement, when I had to look to check that the player really hadn’t moved further away than before, it sounded so distant.

My daughter commented on how restrained Jansson’s gestures were ‘although for a conductor he’s quite young’ (he’s 66).

Encores were Sibelius (that standard encore piece, the Valse Triste) and more Shostakovich. Now where’s the Proms pond in the arena this year?

Reviews (mostly very good) from the Guardian, Independent, Times and Telegraph. Also this, mostly about the Haydn, from the BBC Proms blog.