What do you pair with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? You might do worse than Anna Clyne’s The Years, a subtle meditation on the mystery of time set to words by Stephanie Fleischmann. Composed during the pandemic, its approachable mood of calm isolation survives a series of angsty intrusions to convey a message of quiet hopefulness. Like the Beethoven, it reaches a triumphant conclusion, though in Clyne’s case the victory is an eminently peaceful one.
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Fabio Luisi gave it a relaxed and sensitive reading, warm string tones cocooning vocal lines that rose and fell, rendered with impressive clarity by the Danish National Concert Choir. The musical language, faintly reminiscent of Tippett or Barber, was built on simple melodies that blossomed into tangy harmonic clusters. Oscillating voices, stalked by harsh orchestral interjections like wailing sirens, gave way to an expansive sunset glimpsed through a haze of strings and a tranquil, timeless conclusion.
Less successful somehow was Bent Sørensen’s Evening Land, a 13-minute musical portrait that contrasted a pastoral childhood memory from the composer’s native Zealand in Denmark with the sensation 50 years later of standing on a balcony overlooking the bustle of Manhattan. The former was represented by wispy, folkish violin and oozy strings, the latter by restless syncopations and grating sand blocks, but the overall conceit was flimsy, and – a pensive oboe melody aside – there was little here that really stayed with you.
There was plenty to admire in the Beethoven, not least the incisiveness of the 70 Danish singers who frequently sounded like a choir twice the size. The orchestra, too, was impressive, responding perceptively to the energetic Luisi who, conducting from memory, shaped the music with admirably clear intentions. The problem lay in the often hectic speeds, perhaps ill-considered for an auditorium as resonant as the Royal Albert Hall.
The opening movement was punchy and thoroughly organic, but instrumental details in the scherzo were sometimes smudgy and the adagio felt occasionally perfunctory. It was left to the choir and a fine lineup of soloists to stir the emotions and steer the work to its irrepressible rousing conclusion.
• Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September
