A wonderful evening of majesty and the good kind of tradition
The First Night of the BBC Proms was suitably majestic. The room pulsated with respect and anticipation; as the orchestra prepared to strum and string (and all the other things they do), the reverential silence was palpable.
The first half included a wonderful Violin Concerto in D minor from Jean Sibelius, led by Lisa Batishvili. It was contemplative and utterly compelling with its Nordic gravity. It was preceded by Felix Mendelsshon’s Overture The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave). This, too, was well chosen and well received. I’m perhaps not the most musically gifted individual and thus can’t adequately comment on the intricacies or technically proficiencies of the music. I can, however, talk about the way in which it stimulated my internal monologue. In a world so saturated with content – especially short-form content – that aims to shock us with a constant stream of dopamine, there was something so moving about being in a space dedicated to long-form musical stimulation. It was meditative and emotionally titillating. I found myself venturing all over my brain, indulging in my imagination and memories with a wonderfully dramatic musical backdrop.
The start of the second half was the highlight of the evening: a percussion-heavy world premier entitled The Elements by the absolute diva Errolyn Wallen. It even included a passage in which the whole audience were allowed to click along. Unconventional and stirring, it was a wonderful debut, punchy and invigorating.
One blight: the final and longest piece of the evening, Ralph Vaughan Williams Sancta Civitas, choral piece, was somewhat disappointing. Following the thrill of the preceding pieces, this choral moment was overly somber, and set an unnecessarily morbid tone for the first night. I am no expert in either the church of the music industry, but there is something rather discomfiting about the performance of a chorale that leans on the ‘Power of the Almighty’ in the English Language – from the Book of Revelations, I believe. I believe that the linguistic distance an Italian or Latin piece produces is imperative for the religiously inclined songs. In noticeable contrast to the instrumental music that came before, there was a palpable dullness to this one.
This was the one misstep of the night. Despite this, the evening was a wonderful one, and the atmosphere excellent. It’s delightful to see people dressing well for the theatre again; to see people treating music and theatre as a holistic experience, and one that deserves full commitment. It was also delightful to see the lack of phone usage throughout the concert, something that would be inconceivable in many other kinds of concerts.