BBC Proms: Two tempests, a fire and a swan, Thomas Adès conducts Sibelius, Gabriella Smith & his own music with BBC Symphony Orchestra

Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests - James McVinnie, Thomas Adès, BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Proms (Photo: Andy Paradise/BBC)

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela, Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests, Thomas Adès: Five Spells from The Tempest, Sibelius: The Tempest - Suite No. 1; James McVinnie, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 2 September 2025

Mixing his own music with that of Sibelius and the UK premiere of a work written for the organ of the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Thomas Adès demonstrated a remarkable ear for creating sophisticated shifting palates of orchestral colour

When I spoke to organist James McVinnie last year [see my interview with him celebrating the Southbank Centre organ's 70th birthday], one of the works he mentioned was American composer Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests so it was with great pleasure that we were able to catch McVinnie's performance in the UK premiere of the work at the BBC Proms.

At the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 2 September 2025, Thomas Adès conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme that moved from Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela to Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests (with James McVinnie on the Royal Albert Hall organ), to Adès' own Five Spells from The Tempest and back to Sibelius with his The Tempest - Suite No. 1.

Web of influences: Harry Christophers & The Sixteen at Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich for latest stop of their Choral Pilgrimmage

Orlande de Lassus and the Bavarian court musicians, circa 1563-70 by Hans Mielich (1516-1573)

Masters of Imitation: Lassus, Casulana, Josquin, Châtelet, Bob Chilcott; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich
Reviewed 10 September 2024

Lassus' endlessly inventive and imaginative music in a programme that showcased 16th century composers' fascination for basing new works on existing material

The Chapel at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich dates from the early 18th century, built to Sir Christopher Wren's designs, but its interior is rather later, being rebuilt in 1779 following a fire by James 'Athenian' Stuart. Regarded as one of the finest neo-Classical interiors of the period it might seem an incongruous setting for a programme of 16th century music but Stuart's combination of richness, formality and artifice proved just the right backdrop for the Sixteen's programme of music founded on that example of very 16th century musical artifice, parody.

Tuesday 10 September 2024 was Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's latest stop on their 2024 Choral Pilgrimmage, Masters of Imitation, a tour that encompasses 20 concerts in seven momths, along with eight choral workshops. The programme featured pieces linked by a web of influences and connections. Lassus' motet Osculetur me osculo oris sui, setting the song of songs, and the Credo from his mass based on it, Missa Osculetur me. Josquin's Benedicta es caelorum,  Lassus' Magnificat Benedicta es caelorum Regina based on it and Jean Guyot de Châtelet's remarkable Benedicta es caelorum where he adds extra voice parts to Josquin's motet. There was the plainsong psalm Lauda Jerusalem Dominum and Lassus' motet that uses it, Lauda Jerusalem Dominum, and even more complex, Bob Chilcott's Lauda Jerusalem Dominum, commissioned for the tour, which used the same text but was a parody of Lassus madrigal Cantai, or piano. 

There was also Lassus' Salve Regina, along with two madrigals by Lassus' contemporary, Maddalena Casulana, and we know that her music was performed at the festivities for a ducal wedding in Munich that Lassus supervised, so the web of connections was completed.

With this style of music, we are not necessarily meant to perceive the complexity of the mechanism, instead we are often presented with textures whose sheer richness masks the more formal structure, the composer displaying their skill with the sheer inventiveness with which the original was used.

Prom 50: Two rarities and a classic from Jakub Hrůša and Czech Philharmonic

Dvorák: Piano Concerto - Mao Fujita, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor, Janáček: Glagolitic Mass; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Mao Fujita, Corinne Winters, Bella Adamova, David Butt Philip, Pavel Švingr, Christian Schmitt, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 August 2024

Two rarities and a classic in a prom which showed the Czech orchestra's superb quality, allied to fine performances and soloists

Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra returned to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 28 August 2024 giving us another treat pairing Czech rarities with something familiar. Their second programme featured the first ever performance at the BBC Proms of Vítězslava Kaprálová's Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor with soloist Mao Fujita, and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass with soloists Corinne Winters (soprano), Bella Adamova (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor) and Pavel Švingr (bass, replacing Brindley Sherratt), plus Christian Schmitt (organ) and the City of Prague Philharmonic Choir.

Vítězslava Kaprálová is one of those figures who blazed brilliantly yet briefly. Born in Brno in 1915, she studied in Brno and Prague, but an encounter with Bohuslav Martinů led her to Paris where she had a long and intense relationship with the composer, both professional and personal. She married the son of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha in 1940, but died in June that year. Her Military Sinfonietta was written whilst she was still a student at Prague Conservatory and the work was written against the backdrop of pressure from Nazi Germany for the Czech Republic to cede territory. 

Janácek: Glagolitic Mass - Corinne Winters, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

She conducted the Czech Philharmonic in the premiere at a gala in Prague in 1937, the first woman to conduct the orchestra. She conducted a performance in London in June 1938 for the International Festival of Contemporary Music, when she became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Rather embarrassingly, given this link, the performance of her Military Sinfonietta is the first time any of her works have been performed at the Proms.

Prom 49: A consumate & deeply felt account of Suk's masterful Asrael Symphony crowns the Czech Philharmonic's first appearance at the 2024 BBC Proms

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák: Cello Concerto, Suk: Asrael Symphony; Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 27 August 2024

The Czech orchestra impresses with its superb accompaniment to Kobekina's idiomatic approach to the concerto, and then Suk's huge symphony receives a superb performance, completely consumate and deeply felt

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal guest conductor, Jakub Hrůša, have been on a tour of European Summer festivals with stops at Elbphilharmonie Sommer in Hamburg, the Lucerne Festival and Wiesbaden's Rheingau Musik Festival with a final stop at the BBC Proms with two concerts. For their first concert, on Tuedsay 27 August 2024 at the Royal Albert Hall, Jakub Hrůša conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with soloist Anastasia Kobekina, and Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony.

Suk's masterwork was making only its second appearance at the BBC Proms. Czech Philharmonic and Hrůša have recorded Asrael for a Suk cycle they are currently preparing for Pentatone, whilst Hrůša conducted the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (of which he is chief conductor) in Suk's Asrael Symphony at the Edinburgh International Festival earlier this month.

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto was written for his friend cellist Hanuš Wihan in 1894 whilst Dvořák was working in New York at the National Conservatory for Music, and one of the more unlikely impetuses for the work is that whilst in New York, Dvořák heard the premiere Cello Concerto No. 2 by composer and cellist Victor Herbert, one of the teachers at the conservatory. Herbert's use of a cello in a concerto was unusual at the time but the writing convinced Dvořák. Another inspiration is that whilst writing it, he learned that his sister-in-law was dying and she was the woman that Dvořák had originally been in love with!

To boldly go: Daniel Pioro and the Marian Consort in music for violin and voices by Tom Coult, Nick Martin and Bach

Daniel Pioro

Tom Coult, Daniel Pioro, Nick Martin, Bach; Daniel Pioro, the Marian Consort; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 28 March 2024 (Maundy Thursday)

A wonderfully thought-provoking evening of music for violin and voices from three contemporary works to a speculative version of Bach's great Chaconne

Under the title, Divine Revolutions: Revolving around God: Circular music and the Divine, violinist Daniel Pioro's recital at Wigmore Hall on Thursday 28 March 2024 was something a little bit different. Daniel Pioro's violin was a joined by the voices of The Marian Consort (artistic director Rory McCleery) for a programme exploring music for violin and vocal ensemble. The climax of the programme was Bach's Partita no. 2 in D minor for solo violin, BWV1004 with the 'Chaconne' including accompanying chorales based on the work of musicologist Helga Thoene. The first half featured three contemporary works, the premieres of Tom Coult's O ecclesia oculi tui (after Hildegard of Bingen) and Daniel Pioro's O virtus Sapientie (after Hildegard of Bingen), plus the UK premiere of Nick Martin's Growth Rings.

Tom Coult's piece took Hildegard of Bingen's vocal line and placed it on the violin, accompanying this with contemporary drones on the choir. Pioro's solo violin was very haunting and his phrasing of Hildegard's supple lines came over as remarkably Celtic in feel, as if the sibyl of the Rhine had been holidaying on Lewis.