Arcana at the BBC Proms: Simone Lamsma, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Manze – Vaughan Williams, Britten & Smickersgill

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Simone Lamsma (violin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Manze

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
Britten Violin Concerto in D minor Op.15 (1938-9)
Smickersgill A Brick Thrown with Love (2026) [BBC co-commission: World premiere]
Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 9 in E minor (1956-7)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Friday 4 September 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) BBC / Chris Christodoulou

Andrew Manze’s eleventh appearance at the Proms, during which 28 years he has moved from being a Baroque violinist and director to a symphonic conductor, drew on just over a century of British music for what proved a typically thoughtful and absorbing programme.

Not consistently successful, though – hence an account of Vaughan Williams‘ Tallis Fantasia whose avoiding of old-school eloquence leant it a certain uniformity of expression. In particular, the second (nine-piece) orchestra sounded rather un-atmospheric placed just behind the main body, leaving it to the solo quartet to instil a degree of intensity as the piece built toward its fervent if generalized climax before heading into subdued retrospection. Assured playing among the ranks of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra strings did not make it other than an unexceptional reading.

The surprise about Simone Lamsma’s Proms appearance was this being her first, but anyone having heard her in Saint-Saëns’s Third Concerto knows her to be a soloist of the first order -as was the case with Britten’s Violin Concerto. The Moderato’s alternating of enervation and incisiveness was deftly handled, then the Vivace’s impetus did not omit a soulful response in its central episode with a magical transition on piccolos and tuba back to its initial animation. Nor was the cadenza other than integrated thematically into an overall structure as concludes with one of Britten’s most deeply felt passacaglias. Spanish elements which keenly offset any formal severity with expressive spontaneity bring about its powerful climax; the equivocation between hope and resignation unerringly judged at the end of what was a memorable reading.

Those responsive to her earlier ensemble works should have found Carmel Smickersgill’s new Proms piece no less intriguing. Its three (more or less) continuous sections of A Brick Thrown with Love provide an unforced trajectory where reckless negativity is countered with diverse responses, before the coming together in a mood of determined positivity. Lucid textures and iridescent scoring banish any hint of agit-prop with an appealing demonstration of orchestral prowess; one whose warm reception the composer chose to acknowledge from the rear stalls.

Vaughan Williams’s Ninth Symphony receives more hearings than ever in the seven decades since it premiered to a lukewarm response. Manze had the measure of the opening Moderato with its luminous scoring for three saxophones and a restiveness allayed if not resolved by its twilit coda. The ensuing Andante drew potent contrast from its hieratic and human elements, thrown into relief by a flugelhorn refrain (evocatively played by Tom Fountain) that reaches back into the composer’s distant past, then the Scherzo purposefully offset its capricious and militant aspects with a haunting lyricism as comes into its own in the finale. Less protracted than on Manze’s recording (Onyx), this unfolds in ever more elaborate arcs of accumulating activity to what is less a coda than an apotheosis which here was inevitable and unequivocal.

Just what those closing bars are conveying has been the subject of considerable speculation over time. Without overstating his case, Manze allowed this ‘journey of a life’ to envelop the Albert Hall’s expanse in what was an affecting end to a memorable evening’s music-making.

You can listen to this Prom on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026.

Published post no.3,012 – Wednesday 9 September 2026

New music – Gaspar Claus: Cells (InFiné)

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by Ben Hogwood, incorporating text from the press release

Relentlessly exploring deeply moving sonic territories, Gaspar Claus — cellist, composer, and producer — has followed a highly stimulating path since the early 2010s.

From one creation to the next, he has forged a singular, primarily instrumental language at the crossroads of multiple worlds and artistic encounters: his father, flamenco guitarist Pedro Soler; international indie rock figures such as Bryce Dessner (The National), Casper Clausen (Efterklang), and Sufjan Stevens; Japanese noise icon Keiji Haino; or closer to him, French electronic producer Rone; or songwriter Malik Djoudi, to name but a few.

The album bears a very short title, leaving — like its musical content — maximum space for the listener’s imagination. The term evokes a fundamental biological unit, a place of meditation or confinement, a computing unit, a component of a social organism, as well as the three letters that form the name of his instrument of choice: the cello.

“I like the idea that each track is a musical cell, both autonomous and connected to the others. However, the album is not based on any particular concept. Music, especially instrumental music, doesn’t necessarily need a narrative or discourse imposed on it.”

Gaspar’s music takes the form of contemporary chamber music, deeply marked by the American minimalist wave and threaded with subtle echoes of traditional music from the Mediterranean basin, as well as the laboratory-like experimentation of modern electronic music. Fully unfolding in the silent folds of the night, it exudes a rare emotional density driven by intellectual rigor, without ever slipping into ostentation.

“I had my dream studio built in Banyuls-sur-Mer, where I live part of the year, because I couldn’t manage to work in Paris,” the musician explains. “I spent about a year and a half there working on Cells. The creative process was complicated. The album resisted a lot before taking shape. I went through doubts and questioning, even moments where I considered giving up.”

Clear and direct, with no audible trace of that difficult gestation, the final result — seemingly flowing effortlessly — appears all the more striking. To overcome this long period of inner turbulence, Gaspar Claus relied on a steadfast credo: “It’s simply precious to make music.”

Published post no.3,011 – Tuesday 8 September 2026

Wigmore Hall – Monday lunchtime concerts returning next week

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posted by Ben Hogwood

Next week sees the start of Autumn programming for classical concert venues – among them London’s much-loved Wigmore Hall.

Once again they will be presenting a series of weekly Monday lunchtime concerts, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and featuring much-loved international artists and young, up-and-coming performers from the BBC New Generation Artists scheme.

Starting on Monday 14 September, the series can be viewed on the Wigmore Hall website but is spearheaded by an opening concert of Mahler and Tchaikovsky, from mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and pianist Sergey Rybin.

Further highlights include Barry Douglas playing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, recitals by pianists Elisabeth Brauss and Richard Goode and performances from tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Jonathan Biss, wife-and-husband duo Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, the NOVO and Modigliani Quartets, the Orsino Ensemble, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and pianist Sholto Kynoch, violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Thomas Hoppe, the Leonore Piano Trio and Lawrence Power, clarinettist Olga Shebeta-Dragan and pianist Kristoffer Hyldig and finally a Christmas carol music from The Cardinall’s Musick. And that’s just for starters!

Published post no.3,010 – Monday 7 September 2026

Arcana at the BBC Proms: Julie Roset, Sinfonia of London Strings / John Wilson – Britten, Berkeley, Bridge & Imogen Holst

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Julie Roset (soprano), Sinfonia of London Strings / John Wilson

Berkeley Serenade for Strings Op.12 (1938-9)
Bridge Lament H117 (1915)
Britten Les illuminations Op.18 (1939)
Imogen Holst Suite for String Orchestra (1943)
Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge Op.10 (1937)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Sunday 6 September 2026, 11am

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) BBC / Chris Christodoulou

Just weeks after the heady excess of Respighi’s ‘Roman Triptych’, John Wilson and Sinfonia of London were back at the Proms with a typically resourceful programme of British works for and with string orchestra. One which opened with the fourth appearance at these concerts for Lennox Berkeley’s Serenade for Strings, its modest dimensions belying an intensifying trajectory from the high-spirited Vivace, through a suave Andantino then impetuous Allegro, to a Lento whose inward plangency is a sure reflection of events in the latter months of 1939.

Following on naturally, Frank Bridge’s Lament – remembering a nine-year-old girl drowned with the sinking of RMS Lusitania in May 1915 – found a more apposite context than its two previous Proms appearances; not least as Wilson drew such fastidious poise from his players.

Although hardly ineffective given with tenor, Britten’s Les illuminations conveys its essence more fully as conceived with soprano and Julie Roset’s rendering (above) of Arthur Rimbaud’s often disquieting texts was nothing if not idiomatic. From the insistent activity of Villes, via the suspenseful Phrase and elegant Antique to the portentous Royauté and playful Marine – this was a reading to savour. As enticing were the yearning sensuality of Being Beauteous then capricious contrasts of Parade; this latter’s climactic setting of lines first encountered in Fanfare then Interlude as if completing a circle, from where Départ brings the whole sequence to a resigned though fulfilled conclusion. Roset’s insights were ably underpinned by the strings, even if a slightly more visceral response would at times have been welcome.

Her output can suggest an ambition waylaid if not frustrated at every turn, but Imogen Holst left numerous works of intrinsic as opposed to practical worth. Not least her Suite for Strings, its inquiring spirit evident in a restless Prelude then taciturn Fugue with a tellingly queasy final cadence. Despite its title, the Intermezzo that follows makes for a slow movement of unforced eloquence; one whose barely concealed depths inform the final Jig such that the latter’s impetus is not without a growing ambivalence only just dispelled towards its close.

Commemorating Britten at these concerts in the 50th anniversary of his death means, almost by definition, focussing on those works for orchestra largely absent from his post-war output. Among which, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge remains among the most impressive – not least in a performance as finely conceived and executed as this. As if mindful of an early comment that ‘‘neither [Britten’s] seriousness nor his levity is intense enough’’, Wilson duly pushed expressive contrasts across its 10 variations to their limits. Characterful as were those earlier vignettes, it was in the sequence of glowering Funeral March, ominous Chant then closing Fugue and Finale that his approach came into its own – not least in the way that the latter’s animation came to a standstill before its belated if impulsive surge to a decisive close.

A pity that Wilson did not consider including an encore (one or other of Bridge’s Two Old English Songs would have been ideal for this context) but the all-round excellence of what was heard, at what might be thought a ‘Proms matinee’, was assuredly its own justification.

You can listen to this Prom on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026.

Published post no.3,009 – Sunday 6 September 2026

New music – Black Dog Productions featuring Ofra Haza – Babylon (Remastered)

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posted by Ben Hogwood, with text from Bandcamp

This poignant re-release of a long-lost track is a fitting memorial to Ken Downie, the much-missed founder of The Black Dog.

Its Bandcamp commentary, from The Black Dog members Martin and Richard Dust, reads as follows: “I don’t remember talking to Ken about this album very much. I do remember his manager sending me the album and singles, along with a bit of chat about the quality of Jimmy Cauty’s remixes. Beyond that, it was one of those records that quietly appeared and then slowly disappeared again.

Looking back, this feels like Ken’s second solo Black Dog album. It has always sat slightly outside the main Black Dog story and, because of that, it never seemed to receive the attention it deserved. Over the years it became increasingly difficult to find, and for many people it simply vanished.

We’re making it available again because it deserves to be heard. We also want Ken’s work to remain available as a complete archive, rather than leaving important releases scattered across deleted CDs, out of print vinyl and disappearing digital services.

One thing that has always puzzled us is why the release ended up consisting mostly of remixes of Ken’s original recordings. We’ve spoken to people involved at the time, but nobody seems able to remember exactly how or why that decision was made. The original DAT tapes are still safely stored away and, one rainy day, we may return to them and finally release the original versions as they were first recorded.

Originally released on Warner ESP in 1998, Babylon became one of the last projects that Ofra Haza worked on before her untimely death on 23 February 2000. Her voice, combined with Ken’s production, created something that still sounds unlike anything else from that period.

A few years after its release, Ken reflected on the project and said: “Out of everything I’ve ever done, I think the Babylon project is the one thing that I’m most proud of.” 

Published post no.3,008 – Saturday 5 September 2026