Beethoven’s jubilant Seventh Symphony and a psychodrama about serial polygamy may seem curious bedfellows, but when the band is as good as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, who cares? This was the 19th Proms appearance of the ensemble founded by Iván Fischer and the late Zoltán Kocsis in 1983, and like the finest of Hungarian reds they have matured splendidly.
Chief among many virtues was the visible sense of camaraderie, that and the palpable joy they brought to the music-making, no matter how familiar the fare. These musicians must have played No 7 countless times, yet still it came up fresh as a daisy. There was the opulent string tone, bows digging deep as if the performers’ lives depended on it. Brass and woodwind players seemed born soloists, yet each visibly embraced the team spirit. And then there was Fischer, a model of elegance, coaxing and cajoling while teasing out those tiny details that lent the music spontaneity and vitality. In a truly memorable performance, the seamless flow and Fischer’s dynamic control of the Allegretto stood out, every instrumental line crystal clear (no mean feat given the Albert Hall’s soupy acoustic). Ditto the frisky scherzo, light and airy as a good souffle.
The Bartók opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was an opportunity for the orchestra to demonstrate its impressionistic side, invoking a broad range of moods and musical imagery. Fischer paid close attention to orchestral colours, conjuring if not 50, then at least 12 shades of grey to convey the dank and gloom of Bluebeard’s sunless domain along with grinding dissonances and tense, eerie pianissimos. Woodwind and xylophone painted a lurid portrait of his grisly torture chamber, flickering brass fanfares illuminated the corners of a vicious armoury, while harp and celesta brought a hypnotic sparkle to the blood-stained treasury. The radiant flower garden and the overwhelming C major vistas behind the fifth door were vividly expressed.
Dorottya Láng, a glowing, gutsy Judith, and Krisztián Cser, the most implacable of Bluebeards brought a crucial native intensity to the Hungarian text. Fischer’s expert hand on the tiller ensured the drama ground inescapably onwards to its chilling denouement.
• Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September
