The Olympic-themed Proms began on Friday before we were
ready. Red-jacketed attendants were as sparse as G4S security guards and some
of the audience were still finding their own seats when Ed Gardner, the first
conductor in a relay of such, strode on, leant forward in the gloom and brought
in the brasses for the world premiere of Turnage’s opening fanfare Canon Fever.
Gardner should have insisted that the whole orchestra be present, not just
those required. The scene looked less than festive. The players didn’t even
stand up and the rhythmic but harmonically empty score lacked any sense of
theatre.
Gardner handed the baton on to Sir Roger Norrington for Elgar’s Cockaigne
Overture. The tympanist flourished with each yapapum and Edwardian melancholy
informed the central theme. Has Norrington abandoned his faith in non-vibrato
string-playing? There was plenty here warming the tone yet trying in vain to
counter the faulty light display distracting the audience.
It was not until Sir Mark Elder took the baton and Bryn
Terfel sang Delius’ Sea Drift that real drama rescued the season’s opener. The
craggy bass-baritone stood tall on the edge of the stage, gazing out over the
promenaders as if out to sea, and sang with a range of vocal colours as wide as
the weather. He brought to life Walt Whitman’s nesting sea-bird pair, their
easy flight, their loving ménage, even the wafting wind. The sense of sorrow
when the female one day fails to return was palpable and the male’s subsequent
perpetual mourning cry was almost unbearably poignant. Terfel’s high sotto voce
induced wonder as strong as that which drew the poet’s boy daily to the
summer-long tragedy. If Elder allowed the BBC Symphony to be a little too loud
at times, it was only to imitate rough untamable nature.
