For the first of their four visits to the Albert Hall this summer, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales was conducted by Ariane Matiakh, who was making her Proms debut. On disc, Matiakh has shown what a persuasive conductor of illustrative music she can be, and each of the three works in this concert came with its own programme, including one receiving its premiere that built around the life cycle of a colony of honeybees.
That was Sally Beamish’s Hive, a harp concerto in all but name, written for Catrin Finch who was the soloist here. Its four distinct movements correspond to the seasons, beginning with the dormancy of winter, with the bees clustered together to maintain a constant temperature in their hive, through the gradual stirrings of spring and the frantic foraging for nectar, to the highpoint of the summer swarms, with the emergence of a new queen and her mating flight, and finally back to the quiescence of autumn, as the colony prepares once more for winter.
