Luisi and his Danish forces offered a remarkable evening: a seamless dialogue between the new, the recent, and the timeless.
The BBC Proms have long been a showcase for both the monumental pillars of classical repertoire and the adventurous voices of contemporary composition. Thursday night’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall, led by Fabio Luisi with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir, encapsulated this dual spirit. The programme journeyed from the hushed landscapes of Bent Sørensen to the grandeur of Beethoven, with Anna Clyne’s recent work providing a poignant middle ground.
The evening opened with Sørensen’s Evening Land, and from the very first bars, the piece unfolds almost imperceptibly – drawing you in rather than grabbing you by force – growing from near silence into something vast and strange. The strings unfurled with beauty, their motifs building up to a climax that is never conceived – daring and brave. What impressed most was Sørensen’s ability to draw the audience into his sound world – quiet, patient, and original, nothing predictable about it. As an opener, it worked brilliantly, commanding attention through restraint rather than bombast. For me, this was the most moving work of the evening, a reminder of the sheer power of subtlety in orchestral writing.
Anna Clyne’s The Years followed – a symphonic meditation on the passing of time, written with chorus and inspired by the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdown. With text by Stephanie Fleischmann, the piece combined epic scale with intimate reflection, with which The Danish Concert Choir rose magnificently to the challenge. Shimmering textures and colours combined with large scale structural clarity cement Clyne’s reputation as a modern master of the orchestral idiom.
After the interval, the full weight of tradition descended with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’. This iconic work remains a formidable test for any orchestra, and under Luisi’s direction – who conducted it by memory, without a score – the Danish National Symphony Orchestra struck a balance between precision and passion, in an interpretation that was clear, focused, and full of momentum. The opening movements are remarkably forward-thinking masterpieces clearly written by a composer still at the peak of his powers, but of course, all roads lead to the choral finale. Soloists Clara Cecilie Thomsen (soprano), Jasmin White (contralto), Issachah Savage (tenor), and Adam Pałka (bass) delivered commanding performances during the final ‘Ode to Joy’, blending seamlessly with the choir in a climactic vision of joy and optimism.
And yet, for all Beethoven’s monumental brilliance, it was Sørensen’s Evening Land that lingered in my mind as the night’s true highlight. Its originality, its quiet daring, and its delicate beauty set it apart.
One unfortunate blemish on the evening was the behaviour of some audience members. Coughs punctuated moments of quietude, and a handful of intrusive phone sounds broke the spell of the music. At a Proms concert, particularly one being filmed and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, one would expect greater etiquette. It was a reminder that even the best performances can be disrupted by lapses in attentiveness.
Still, Luisi and his Danish forces offered a remarkable evening: a seamless dialogue between the new, the recent, and the timeless. If Sørensen’s work was about listening closely, Beethoven’s finale was about sitting back and becoming absorbed in the orchestral grandeur. A fitting testament to the Proms’ enduring power.
The Proms 2025 runs until the 13th of September, when it draws to a close with the traditional Last Night of the Proms.