Royal Albert Hall, London
A programme ranging from Sibelius, Grieg and Britten to a world premiere by Ukrainian Bohdana Frolyak opened the Proms with conductor Dalia Stasevska engaged and outgoing.
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.
