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.
