Andris Nelsons officially stepped down as the City of Birmingham Symphony’s music director a month ago, with performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony. But his very last concert with the orchestra was reserved for the Proms, and another massive symphony. For many years, Beethoven’s Ninth was always played on the penultimate night of the Proms each year. Since that tradition was abandoned, the symphony’s scheduling in the season has become a moveable feast, though never before, I think, has it been included as early as the opening weekend.
Nelsons’ performance, though – echoing the one he gave last autumn as part of his complete Beethoven cycle in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall – would have been blazingly memorable whenever and wherever it had taken place. There were all the hallmarks that have become so recognisable over the seven seasons he has been in Birmingham, especially the meticulous attention to detail and the knack of making it all seem utterly fresh, combined with an unwavering certainty about what the music’s ultimate destination is. The dynamic range of this performance was huge – the pianissimos intense, the fortissimos immense – whether in the first stirrings of the opening movement, the furious rush of the scherzo or the careful building of the finale, layer by layer, towards its huge choral affirmation, in which Nelsons’ gestures seemed to invite the whole Albert Hall into celebrating along with the CBSO Chorus and soloists Lucy Crowe, Gerhild Romberger, Pavel Černoch and Kostas Smoriginas.
The concert had begun with Beethoven too – the overture from the Creatures of Prometheus ballet score, wonderfully airy, fizzing with perfectly focused energy from the CBSO strings – before giving a London premiere to a piece that Nelsons and the orchestra introduced in 2009. John Woolrich’s Falling Down was composed for the CBSO’s contra-bassoonist Margaret Cookhorn; it’s an unlikely concertante piece, predictably dark-hued and slightly gruff, but, as Cookhorn showed, totally convincing on its own terms.
- Available on BBC iPlayer until 18 August. The Proms continue until 12 September.
