Prom 13:  Elgar, Concert Overture ‘In the South (Alassio); Bliss, A Colour Symphony; Walton, Belshazzar’s Feast. Bryn Terfel (baritone) BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Côr Caerdydd, London Symphony Chorus, London Brass, cond. Richard Hickox. Royal Albert Hall 23. 07.2006 (ME)

 

 

‘As you’ll never hear the thing again, my boy, why don’t you throw in a couple of brass bands?’ I’ve wanted to use that quotation for years, and here is my chance – it was, of course, a ‘Beecham-ism’, directed at William Walton on the subject of his Belshazzar’s Feast… this Proms performance was really ‘Bryn’s Feast’ and the ladies who made up the majority of the audience were clearly determined to get the most out of their hero’s… ooh, all of 9 minutes of declamation. It’s a wildly over-rated work, in my opinion –a relentlessly loud, brash, ultimately pointless setting of Biblical texts – would it be possible, I have often wondered, to set ‘By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept’ or as the text here would have it, ‘There we sat down: yea, we wept’ with less poignancy? All the crescendi and diminuendi at the ‘significant’ moments, and lots of wall-of-sound choral episodes are of course calculated to please those who enjoy that kind of thing.

 

‘Belshazzar’ provides a Barihunk with a nice little part – stroll on, declaim a bit, stroll off to tumults. Bryn sang it loudly, with plenty of swagger, and with nice attention to detail in the bit about the gold and silver: one could savour his giant’s vocal stride once one had got over one’s shock at the wow-wow-wow vibrato he produced in the first few lines. The monumental choirs of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, the  Côr Caerdydd and the London Symphony Chorus backed him up with precisely-directed narrative howls, although at times not too crisp of diction. The orchestra, and more especially those brass bands, from London Brass, seemed to revel in it all.

 

However grim the Walton may be to my ears, it darkens into significance when set alongside Bliss. Was any Symphony ever so mis-named as his ‘A Colour Symphony?’ Colourless, would be more like it, since it is over half an hour of inconsequential meanderings which one is supposed to ‘hear’ as the properties of various colours: I certainly know how the ‘Blue’ and ‘Green’ sections made me feel. Full marks to the programme notes, though, for guiding the expected responses whilst only seldom straying into the pretentious. Elgar’s Concert Overture In the South (Alassio) was better, of course: in fact parts of it are neglected masterworks, in my view, especially the solo viola part, finely played here although hampered by the hall’s size.

 

This was Richard Hickox’s last concert as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and it was typical of him in that he managed to make even turgid music sound appealing. Not that I ever want to hear most of it again, if I can help it – and please don’t bother to send me vitriolic e-mails accusing me of hating English music: I adore English music in the shape of Purcell, Britten, Vaughan Williams…even Gurney, Finzi and Butterworth, but not the material of most of this concert, which is the kind of thing which gives English music a bad name. A large – but not capacity – crowd lapped it up, though, which is always heartening to see even if one doesn’t share in the adulation oneself.

 

Melanie Eskenazi