Prague, or more specifically the panoramic photographs taken of the Czech capital by Josef Sudek in the 1950s and 60s, were the starting point for Julian Anderson’s new symphony, his second. Co-commissioned by the BBC, it is dedicated to the Russian-born conductor Semyon Bychkov, who opened his Prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with the first complete performance of Anderson’s score.
It’s certainly ambitious and substantial, but despite the subtitle of “Prague Panoramas”, Anderson insists it is not programme music, that it can be appreciated as an entirely abstract, half-hour work. Yet Czech references are embedded in all three movements. The material of the first, which builds to a huge final climax, makes use of two medieval Czech hymns; the harmonies of the central nocturne are derived from the sound-spectra of the bells of a Prague church; and the rough-and-tumble of the finale was apparently inspired by depictions of pub brawls in the cartoons of Josef Lada.
The work’s most striking moments don’t need extra-musical justification: the tangles of lines moving at different speeds in the final pages of the first movement (their intricate details far easier to appreciate from the broadcast than they ever were in the hall), leading to the cataclysmic climax; the moment at the core of the nocturne when four flutes are heard playing in husky natural harmonics; the gentle flute lullaby that initiates the coda of the finale. But as a totality the symphony seems diffuse and overinflated, never delivering on its initial promise.
The BBCSO’s performance was typically efficient, and the Czech theme was continued with Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos, though by the time it was written, in 1943, Martinů had left Europe for the US. The soloists were Katia and Marielle Labèque, whose performance had all the necessary verve and rumbustious energy, though a lot of that was dissipated in the hall, and once again was better served in the broadcast.
Bychkov ended with an affectionate account of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, which was a bit too lingeringly affectionate at times; they are dances, after all, and Rachmaninov never needs much encouragement to seem prolix.
Available on BBC Sounds until 10 October. The BBC Proms continue until 10 September.
