Somehow I managed to get away after 4 p.m. evensong at Ely Cathedral, made it to the railway station, leapt onto another train at Cambridge and then arrived at the Albert Hall around 7 o’clock to be there for the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester’s Prom under Daniele Gatti. A print-your-own-ticket facility ensured I had a seat waiting for me, though curiously my (minimal but not non-existent) 3 days’ worth of luggage didn’t get checked. Part of it was my academic gown, which I wore as I went in. Quite a rush, but that is me: Cathedral singer by day, Berg enthusiast by night.
What I’d come to hear was Frank Peter Zimmermann playing the violin concerto, as part of a concert with a loosely Viennese theme. Some of the concert was made up of opera excerpts: it began with some chunks of Parsifal, like the Prom I went to two years ago. And after the interval came the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, which somehow manages to neutralise the attractiveness of the music, especially by its unsubtle replacement of Strauss’ wry original ending with a reprise of one of the big themes.
These pieces were all played with lovely tone and great clarity; the only flaw I noticed was occasional mis-tuning in the brass. The interpretation of Berg’s concerto was on the restrained side (as seems to be common these days), allowing the score to speak for itself rather than being overly demonstrative.
The final piece on the programme was Ravel’s La valse which gradually emerged as a brutal cousin of the Rite of Spring or the second of Berg’s 3 Orchestral Pieces. Sadly I needed to dash off again afterwards to be sure of making my train and so missed what I’m told was a fine performance of the prelude to Meistersinger.
This was generally thought to be one of the best of this year’s Promenade concerts. Proms audiences seem to have been more beset by coughs than ever (perhaps it’s the cold, wet summer), but even the apparently more inattentive fell silent and really paid attention.
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