In one sense, this stroll along the highways and byways of 20th-century British music was a throwback to an earlier era when Proms audiences were treated to grab bags of the latest popular odds and sods. What made this such a stimulating affair was the juxtaposition of undeniable old masters with works by composers underrepresented in today’s concert halls. With the BBC National Orchestra of Wales on top form throughout, helmed by the energetic Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti, there was much here to relish.
The staples first, and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending received a poetic and thoroughly idiomatic reading at the hands of Bulgarian violinist Liya Petrova. The orchestra laid the velvet-cushioned groundwork over which Petrova soared with elegant phrasing, silvery tone and exquisitely delivered top notes. An assured account of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes teemed with atmosphere. Venditti was particularly adept at bringing out the music’s underlying menace, though the hectic pace adopted for the Sunday Morning bells episode left musical details muddied by the acoustic.
If Walton’s Crown Imperial, taken a tad fast, lacked the final ounce of Technicolor chutzpah, Elgar’s Enigma Variations was a painterly tour de force, Venditti holding the architectural line despite twice being interrupted by overeager applause. Tempi were ideal, whether depicting the aquatic high jinks of a bulldog in a river or sustaining a breathtakingly controlled build through Nimrod.
The rarities – all Proms premieres – were a fascinating if slightly mixed bag. William Mathias’s syncopated Dance Overture was a proper crowd-pleaser, the wizardly Welsh composer successfully locating his inner Carmen Miranda. The BBC Singers lent class to a pair of Edwardian part-songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, while his daughter Avril’s The Shepherd, a haunting setting of William Blake for male voices and strings, was a fine discovery. Both rather showed up John Rutter’s sugar-coated Bird Songs, here receiving its world premiere. Schmaltzy and curiously derivative, they felt dated in a way the older music did not.
It was left to Venditti to right the ship with Grace Williams’ affecting Elegy for Strings, its gently rocking rhythms and intricate interweaving lines crowned by Lesley Hatfield’s heartfelt violin solo.
• Listen again on BBC Sounds until 12 October. The Proms continue until 13 September
