Andrew Clements 

Proms 29 and 28: NYOGB/Petrenko; Ulster O/Faletta – review

The young music-makers' weekend saw a witty version of Varèse's Tuning Up and an eventful depiction of the Antrim countryside, writes Andrew Clements
  
  


The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is an annual visitor to the Proms, and its concert this year, with its principal conductor Vasily Petrenko, was part of an Albert Hall weekend that took youthful music-making as its theme. Varèse's Tuning Up – his tongue-in-cheek riff on orchestra rituals – began the concert and Anna Meredith's New Music 20x12 commission for NYOGB, Hands-Free, closed it. Both were wittily choreographed and presented, but it was Messiaen's vast Turangalîla Symphony, with pianist Joanna MacGregor and Cynthia Millar playing the ondes Martenot, that dominated the programme.

Petrenko's performance of the symphony had much beautiful detail but was decidedly measured, as if he seemed rather reticent about unleashing the full weight of the huge orchestra arrayed before him. Even so, balance was still a problem: Millar's contribution was often inaudible from the left-hand side of the hall, and even some of MacGregor's wonderfully agile playing went for nothing.

There was a new piece in the programme, too. Nico Muhly's Gait was apparently inspired by the different ways in which animals walk and run, but though deftly scored, the result was a rather anodyne and, at 23 minutes, overlong tour around the sounds and gestures of 1970s minimalism, especially Adams and Reich, with a bit of Copland-style Americana thrown in for good measure.

Earlier in the day, the Ulster Orchestra had shared its Prom with the Ulster Youth Orchestra, with whom it also shares a principal conductor, JoAnn Falletta. That, too, had contained a BBC commission. Elaine Agnew's Dark Hedges was composed for the combined orchestras and for the solo flute of James Galway, who also played Mozart's D major Flute Concerto K314 with his unfailing fluency and wit. A group of percussionists stationed in the middle of the arena punctuated and coloured Galway's ruminations, while the orchestra intervened more stridently; Agnew's depiction of the Antrim countryside is certainly eventful, though how well it all hangs together is less certain.

• Available on iPlayer until Saturday. If you're at any Prom this summer, tweet your thoughts about it to @guardianmusic using the hashtag #proms and we'll pull what you've got to say into one of our weekly roundups – or leave your comments below.

 

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