It is impossible to fault the good intentions of the BBC Proms Out and About event at the Brixton Academy. A cross between Top of the Pops and the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, this was a free concert for 1,500 children and their parents, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Adams.
Adams opened with the grandeur of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Gigantic video screens relayed the inner workings of the orchestra to the audience, and roving reporters interviewed the musicians for the assembled masses.
Adams introduced the individual sections of the orchestra with easy enthusiasm, and conducted music by Bartok and John Williams. The woodwind played music from Harry Potter, drawing whoops of recognition and delight; but the strings' performance of Bartok's Romanian Dances sounded as if it was happening at the other end of a football field as the unamplified instruments struggled to project into the cavernous barn of the venue.
Adams talked about each instrument, but players did not demonstrate them. "When are they going to play some music?" an astute five-year-old complained. But there was interactivity when Paul Rissmann and Richard Frostick involved the entire audience in a musical workshop, creating a set of percussive riffs based on Adams's orchestral work, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. That piece finally received a Proms-sponsored performance in the second half, where there was a more conventional concert of orchestral favourites.
Adams conducted with typical energy and directness, but even he could do nothing about the positioning of the orchestra at the far end of the auditorium. When they were playing at anything less than a full-blooded fortissimo, the players were almost inaudible above the hubbub. The children became more and more restless, but they were roused by the shouts of "Mambo!" in Bernstein's West Side Story, and by more music from Harry Potter. Adams created a genial, generous atmosphere, but the event was neither a convincing concert nor an effective educational experience.
