The first night of the BBC Proms season is always an event. But it isn’t necessarily always a big occasion. The launch of the 2023 season at a packed Albert Hall was undoubtedly the latter. This was down to the well chosen programme, of course, and the on-form musicians of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but it drew at least as much on the audience’s palpably energised mood.
Even before the start, it was as if a switch had already been thrown. Part of this reflects the new controller Sam Jackson’s determination to make a bigger than normal noise about the Proms on Radio 3 in the run-up. But it also felt as if the penny has at last dropped with audiences that classical music is under threat in Britain. This concert felt like a fight-back.
