BBC Proms night of blue chip classics at The Glasshouse
Royal Northern Sinfonia plays Bach and Mendelssohn
For the classical purists, this will have been the BBC Proms concert in the North East they’ll have had underlined in red – although it was possibly the one where the standing tradition made the least sense.
It’s one thing to ‘promenade’ to Little Mix numbers or Soweto Kinch in jamming mode, or at the ‘Last Night’ frolics at the Royal Albert Hall. Bach and Mendelssohn don’t offer quite the same vibe.
But this was a terrific concert at The Glasshouse with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) firing on all cylinders, conductor Dinis Sousa releasing pent-up energy and some 200 singers just itching to hit us with a choral ‘wall of sound’.
The singers – a joint force of the Chorus of the RNS, Huddersfield Choral Society and Voices of the River’s Edge – had to wait their turn.
First up was charismatic French pianist David Fray to perform Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor.
He was introduced in glowing terms by BBC presenter Sarah Walker, reporting that he had been described as “perhaps the most inspired, certainly the most original Bach player of his generation”.
He did nothing to lessen that estimation on the big stage here, performing with aplomb, sometimes hunched over the keys and sometimes leaning back with apparent nonchalance.
To a stirring and dramatic work, he did more than justice, seeming to warm to the hall, the occasion and the orchestra, which featured – many were pleased to see – a returning Bradley Creswick who led it with distinction for many years.
Meanwhile the BBC cameras roved and pried, for this concert was not just broadcast live on Radio 3 but will be shown on BBC Four at 8pm on Friday, August 1.
There was plenty of scope for lively footage – but it was the laid-back aspect of his demeanour that Fray channelled when brought back for an encore, choosing Bach’s sublime Air on the G String and prompting a collective holding of breath.
After that substantial starter came the main course, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, known as ‘Lobgesang’ (Hymn of Praise) and at which he apparently threw the kitchen sink.
It was composed, apparently, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of a type of printing press.
The orchestra gets all the glory for the first three of the 10 movements and it rose to the challenge, Sousa working his socks off and the players seeming to respond in kind.
Then came the soloists with, first up, South Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park, petite in all but voice. Going against the uniform black, she had opted for bright pink, perhaps in order to be seen.
You could certainly hear her. What a wonderful voice, fit to raise even The Glasshouse’s curvy roof.
Adèle Charvet, the French mezzo-soprano, and British tenor Benjamin Hulett were also bang on form – but the highlight was when the singers waiting patiently behind were finally given the signal to let rip.
The sound was immense, exhilarating, swinging from rhapsodic to exuberant to elegiac.
Anyone not familiar with the work may have been brought up short by the sudden appearance of a popular hymn, Now thank we all our God (or, as here, Nun dankett alle Gott), used by Bach and then years later by Mendelssohn as the chorale for this piece.
It has always been a favourite of mine.
But you really didn’t have to know any of this to have enjoyed this North East contribution to the BBC Proms programme, whether sitting or standing.
The place was packed, the atmosphere was electric and the performances were top drawer. It put Gateshead's international centre for music in the best possible light.
Do catch the concert on BBC Sounds – or see it on television on August 1. Or why not do both?