The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, gave its first Prom of the season at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert included the world premiere of Brett Dean's orchestral song-cycle The World's Wife, alongside Judith Weir's Moon and Star and Elgar's First Symphony.
Elgar's First fails to fully ignite
Wigglesworth's approach to Elgar's symphony was intellectual, with clear structural lines from the hushed opening to the finale's return. However, transitions in the first two movements were choppy, episodes in the final Allegro lacked context, and balance in the Adagio was imperfect. The performance, while handsome, kept the audience thinking rather than feeling.
Weir's Moon and Star
Judith Weir's 1995 Moon and Star offered filmic sweep and shimmer. Emily Dickinson's poem gleamed under layers of orchestral texture, creating a prismatic explosion of imagery rather than a traditional setting.
Dean's The World's Wife
Brett Dean's new song-cycle sets five poems by Carol Ann Duffy, which look over the shoulders of famous men at the women behind them. Soprano Claire Booth, described as a stage animal, seized the text, bending it into love-song, satire, prayer and meditation. Dean's monodrama, pitched between Pierrot Lunaire and Façade, is stylised and arch, yet richly textured, creating new spaces in Duffy's epigrammatic poetry. The piece is available on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 12 September.
