Another day, another walk to Richmond. It was high water so no wildlife to see on the foreshore. It was Monday morning so some litter left by picknickers after a warm and sunny weekend. Home in time for a shower, a swift weak G&T and tube transfer to Sloane Square for a lunchtime chamber music Prom at Cadogan Hall.
Are you foxed by the pentangular logo above? It suggests the shape of the Berlin Philharmoniker’s home, built in 1963.
Before that the orchestra had a series of misfortunes. It began life in 1883 playing in an old ice rink. That was destroyed by the RAF in 1944 after which the orchestra moved to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Bomber Command destroyed that two months later and the BP moved to an old cinema and finally (?) their new home, above.
They are one of the most acclaimed orchestras in the world as the roll call of their conductors attests.
- Ludwig von Brenner (1882–1887)
- Hans von Bülow (1887–1894)
- Arthur Nikisch (1895–1922)
- Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922–1945)
- Leo Borchard (May–August 1945)
- Sergiu Celibidache (1945–1952)
- Wilhelm Furtwängler (1952–1954)
- Herbert von Karajan (1954–1989)
- Claudio Abbado (1989–2002)
- Sir Simon Rattle (2002–2018)
- Kirill Petrenko (2019- )
So it was rather good to hear seven of their soloists at Cadogan Hall playing, mostly, chamber music by Lili Boulanger, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Like the Albert Hall Proms these lunchtime ones are broadcast live on Radio 3. At the Albert Hall the radio commentators are tucked away in a glass fronted box – think Test Match Special at Lord’s. At Cadogan Hall, Petroc Trelawny strides confidently onto the stage and settles the audience down, concluding with the last few words of the R 3 weather forecast that he is listening to on an earpiece before going live. He is a Class Act. I was at the Cadogan Hall six years ago for a Richard Rodney Bennett Prom. Sir Richard was in the audience and was supposed to join Petroc on stage to be interviewed, live. Some dunderhead had put a barrier across the steps. Petroc imperturbably went down and conducted the interview across the barrier.
Now there’s been so much digression that there’s barely space to tell about the Prom. Actually, maybe that’s as well because we had a world premiere by Slovenian composer Nina Šenk, born 1982. Let’s just say that I found it challenging and that the seven BP soloists didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves as much as when playing Boulanger, Debussy and Ravel.
One more then no more, as a friend says before having several more, but this time it will be the last night of the Proms for me and Robert on Thursday and a piece of music I have never heard before. But I’m being selfish, you must hear a symphony.