PROMS 2026: A Transatlantic Brew for the First Night of the Proms

Festivities began no more obviously than with Copland’s three-minute Fanfare for the Common Man, one of ten declamatory works prompted by Eugene Goosens. His request to score the piece for brass and percussion was an inspired choice, to which Copland responded brilliantly as well as amply fulfilling a brief to create a “stirring and significant contribution to the war effort”. Under the galvanising baton of principal guest conductor Dalia Stasevska, the players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra brought out all its pomp and nobility. With barely a pause, the mood abruptly changed to explore Gershwin’s “impressions of an American visitor to Paris”. Initially, light on its feet, the jaunty souvenir that is An American in Paris was given a blazing performance. Street noises, inspired by the composer’s second visit to the City of Light, were unmissable, the cacophony of car horns giving a good impression of Parisian road rage road as you might have heard in the 1920s. If, at times, this account felt like a gallop through the work’s irrepressible tunes, with Stasevska pushing the tempo, the big band sounds were thrilling, and there were some stand out moments for saxophone, trumpet and violin soloists, each bringing superb musicianship and night-time seduction. And then, where better than to head to Ravel’s G-major Piano Concerto, given one of those revelatory accounts that cast fresh light on an enduring classic. The work’s high spirits and dreamy introspection were superbly underlined by Korean pianist Yunchan Lim. By far the most audible feature of his playing was his delicacy of touch, a quality which seeped into the opening movement, its playfulness muted under Lim’s hands to fashion a surrounding accompaniment of chamber-like sonorities. Yet there was Mozartian transparency too, with one brief passage for harp and three cellos wonderfully illuminated. The subdued manner served as a kind of appetiser for the Adagio, where beguiling woodwind floated above sparkling piano figuration. As if to abandon any hits of impressionism, the Presto Finale sparkled like champagne: here the soloist’s rapid fingerwork, there a chortling clarinet and a parping trombone, all working well together to bring a Gallic insouciance redolent of Poulenc and snuffed out in the closing bar with an impish “that’s it folks” shrug. It wasn’t quite the last of Lim who returned to present an arrangement of ‘Autumn Leaves’, and once more captivating the audience. After the interval it was a Proms commission from the French-British composer Josephine Stephenson. With words by the American poet Emily Dickinson, Stephenson’s That the sunrise not leave us unmoved takes its cue from a journal by the 20th century Belgian-American writer May Sarton. The words reflect on the joy found in nature’s gifts such as a sunrise or “a long shadow on the lawn”. Largely built on a series of short contemplative choral gestures over shimmering orchestral textures, its fragmentary phrase patterns steadily developed and were crowned by the mighty Albert Hall organ and one member of the audience shrieking their delight at the work’s close. With such large forces involved, it’s difficult to imagine the work’s afterlife despite an impressive premiere. And to follow was Gerald Finzi’s For St Cecilia, his ceremonial ode of 1947, only now receiving its Proms premiere. Considering the beauty of Finzi’s choral writing, it is surprising how few of the composer’s choral works have been performed at this Festival and only include his Intimations of Immortality. With a sound world that fuses Walton and Elgar, one might assume the work would have a more active performance life regardless of a text by Edmund Blunden that does the composer no great favours. Hopefully, future performances will not be so thrown away as this one, which felt, at times, indecently fast. Anyone who has sung Finzi’s Magnificat or Lo, the full, final sacrifice, or is familiar with his Dies Natalis (none of which have been performed at the Proms) knows that the composer’s melodies have a certain dignity and should not be rushed. They deserve a more spacious approach that was largely absent in this account. The opening and closing fanfares were suitably uplifting, but any sense of reverence was missing, excitement getting the better of Stasevska with her hurried tempo. She was at her best when the spirits of Purcell, Dowland and other English composers were evoked by the BBC Singers over a halo of strings. A sense of veneration was unmistakable. Elsewhere, Thomas Atkins made light of his wide-ranging tenor lines, striding across the stave to praise St Ceclia’s capacity to inspire “Song’s latecomers”. And no less striking was the singing of the BBC Symphony Chorus, in magnificent voice, and clearly enjoying Finzi’s homage to the patron saint of music. At the close, orchestra and singers had more to offer with a special arrangement of Noel Gallaher’s Wonderwall – a different kind of homage that enabled everyone to unleash an unvarnished vocal tone, ‘can belto’ voices given full rein. David Truslove Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin – An American in Paris; Ravel – Piano Concerto in G major; Josephine Stephenson – That the sunrise not leave us unmoved; Finzi – For St Cecilia, Op.30 Yunchan Lim – piano; Thomas Atkins – tenor; BBC Singers; BBC Symphony Chorus; BBC Symphony Orchestra; Dalia Stasevska – conductor Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London 17 July 2026 All photos © Chris Christodoulou