When Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra come to town, expect the unexpected. It’s not just that they eschew auditions, preferring to recruit like-minded musicians with shared views on how classical music must change if it is going to have a future. There is something about how they play, the visceral, physically dynamic way they move as one, that turns a concert into a communal act for orchestra and audience. Clearly word has got around. For the first of three Proms appearances in the orchestra’s 40th year, the Royal Albert Hall was packed to the rafters.
Given their radical credentials, Saturday evening’s prom was a pretty conservative programme, but there was nothing ordinary about the performances. There is a remarkable weight to the golden, glowing BFO sound, assisted by some canny orchestral geography that places the double basses high up at the back and the timpani even higher. Fischer is a bold, sometimes audacious interpreter, urging his players forward with defined, demonstrative gestures. The results are individual, frequently gripping and often thought-provoking.
