Royal Albert Hall, London
First Night fireworks with Elim Chan and co, a triumphant farewell from Mark Elder, and a ravishing love triangle kicked off a re-energised Proms
What a difference an election can make. There’s a new atmosphere at the BBC Proms this year, one of tentative hope and, yes, relief. With divisive culture wars over and the licence fee declared safe, hearts must have been lighter in the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on the first night. Joining them were the BBC Singers, the ensemble with most to celebrate after their threatened demise last year became such a symbol of the previous government’s belligerent hostility towards the arts in the UK.
No wonder Bruckner’s great shout of “Hallelujah!” in his setting of Psalm 150 came over in Prom 1 with such force, conductor Elim Chan pumping up the volume to maximum. But this served only as a prelude to the great surprise of the evening, Ben Nobuto’s Hallelujah Sim, a hugely entertaining “step-by-step tutorial” for choir and orchestra, structured like a video game and given its premiere, ironically, on the day that Microsoft systems were crashing all around the world.
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