Barraine, Copland, Shaw and Rachmaninov @ The BBC Proms

The first of two pitch-perfect Proms on the last evening of July, was a cleverly programmed concerto of four works composed within a decade, spanning the outbreak of the Second World War. New to the Proms was the opening – and earliest – work, the second symphony by French composer Elsa Barraine, who died in 1999 at nearly 90, with 150 works to her name (mostly early). Titled Voina – Russian for War – this was prescient in 1938 and was, not surprisingly, banned from performance during the occupation of France. A strong and sinewy work, it reminded me of the style of other Francophile composers – Honegger, Martinů etc – and certainly deserves a place with them on the modern concert platform. With rhythmic outer movements flanking a funeral march middle movement, this is an eloquent musical statement of its time, but equally of all time, and Joshua Weilerstein directed his BBC Philharmonic forces in a direct and forthright performance of suitable weight and seriousness.

The focus then shifted to the New World, for two jazz-inspired clarinet concertos with popular and charismatic clarinettist Martin Fröst, complete with sneakers and quasi-uniform with stripe down his legs and double stripes on his arm cuffs. First was Copland’s concerto for Benny Goodman – the latest work on the bill, its revision ten years after the Barraine, from 1948.  Accompanied by strings, piano and harp, the opening movement is gentle, with Martin Fröst’s opening note growing from nowhere: surely one of the most beautiful movements in American music, which – via an increasingly syncopated cadenza melts into the jazzy finale. Here Fröst danced his way through the technical difficulties, with Paul Janes on the piano notable for injecting power to Copland’s rhythms. 

The fact that Artie Shaw’s 1940 Concerto for his own instrument was already programmed seemed like a built-in encore. Like the Barraine, it was new to the Proms but should become a regular. With the addition of full wind, brass and percussion – including Paul Turner on drum kit – as well as a complement of four saxophones, this nine-minute expression of exuberance, fashioned (seemingly as an improvisation) from a three minute film appearance, essayed various moods and rhythms as it built to a final rapid clarinet ascent, Fröst’s instrument held almost vertically as he issued his final notes to the Royal Albert Hall’s rafters, to be greeted by the acclamation of the 6,000-strong full house.

But then there was the real encore, bucking the mid-20th century theme of the concert and taking us back a further 200 years, to Bach’s first prelude from The Well-Tempered Klavier, which Fröst explained was a work he tried to practice, needing two minutes, 46 seconds of breath to smoothly essay Bach’s arpeggios. But he wanted the audience to hum or sing Gounod’s later addition – the Ave Maria – above his Bach transcription. The result was a moment of utter Proms magic as Fröst cemented himself as one of the Prommers’ favourite performers. Come back soon.

After the interval Weilerstein gave us red-blooded and vibrant Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances – I’d seen him conduct it with the London Philharmonic in November 2022 – but not without a nuanced approach to Rachmaninov’s melancholy and, let’s face it, death fixation. The haunting reminiscence towards the end of the first movement of a chorale theme from his then-unknown First Symphony, was particularly poignant, as were the alto saxophone and cor anglais solos in the second, before the crashing force of the Deis Irae, overwhelming in the third. Just as in its concerts with John Storgårds and Anja Bihlmaier last week, the BBC Philharmonic, tonight led by Zoë Beyers, who also shone in her solos, was on blistering form. It was as if the audience was shell-shocked at the end allowing the climactic tam-tam’s (albeit perhaps inauthentic) ringing die almost completely out before bursting into rapturous applause.