Carl Nielsen and Charles Ives were near contemporaries. Yet at first hearing there is little else that links the two composers – or any other composer at all in Ives’s singular case. Another well-conceived BBC Symphony Orchestra Prom with a generous range of choral forces – a repeated feature of this year’s programmes – made one think differently, however. In each half of the concert an emphasis on the popular roots of the composer’s writing – folk music in Nielsen’s case, hymn tunes in that of Ives – was followed by a major concert work. It all made highly stimulating sense. Only the National Anthem, performed at the start in Gordon Jacob’s 1953 arrangement to mark the Queen’s record-breaking reign, disturbed the symmetry.
Andrew Litton, who conducted with benign crispness, caught the folkloric lilt of Nielsen’s Springtime on Funen with particular skill, with Malin Christensson and Ben Johnson clear and idiomatic soprano and tenor soloists in this witty and wordly choral welcome of spring. Nielsen’s ambitiously conceived violin concerto followed, with the Norwegian soloist Henning Kraggerud making an instant impression with his very forward account of the work’s early cadenza. The openness and commitment of Kraggerud’s playing maintained the tension through the concerto’s darker pages and made a compelling case for what is a surprisingly neglected score, even in an anniversary year which has done Nielsen proud.
Four American hymns, with organ accompaniment – always an Albert Hall treat – then segued uninterrupted into Ives’s ever astonishing Fourth symphony. This wonderfully eclectic and complex work, with its roots in American religious and marching band music, will always dominate any concert in which it is programmed. Litton certainly raised the roof with the tumultuous second movement, with the brass swaying in marchtime and Fergus Macleod conducting the parallel rhythms. But the BBC orchestra rose to every challenge that the composer launched at them and Litton never lost sight of the enigmatic and serious qualities that link the symphony’s wildly disparate movements so memorably.
• On BBC iPlayer until 10 October. The Proms continue until Saturday. Box office: 0845-401 5040.
