Making a rare visit to South Kensington my trip to the BBC Proms was to see Chineke! the first professional orchestra in Europe made up of majority black and ethnically diverse musicians, performing with the American soprano Angel Blue. I spent a lot of this summer hanging out at the Barbican checking out their Pan-Africanism season, and this felt like a great counterpart, or even contrast to their season. At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, a lot of the Pan-Africanism season was interrogating or challenging European/western/white aesthetics and arguing for a break from these traditions; Chineke! in concert really underlines that there is a bevy of black talent who are operating at the highest levels within classical music, which is one of the institutions being interrogated within Pan-Africanism. Taken together, it is inarguable that London right now has a remarkable amount of black and ethnically diverse artists both within and without what you might call the London ‘high culture’.
The night began with a premiere of a dance suite from black composer Edmund Thornton Jenkins – Jenkins had died leaving only an incomplete manuscript, his great-nephew Tuffus Zimbabwe finished and arranged the piece. It opens with what is a strident march or procession suggestive of a major event about to occur. The music has an emotional power that is quite startling but then subsides into something far more light and breezy. The second movement begins with a couple of beautiful instrumental arrangements for two flutes and a viola, melodies that delight and evoke an afternoon picnic by water. The finale is an odd contrast between an opening triumphant trumpet fanfare that morphs into a waltz and concludes with a speedy euphoric ending. If ever a piece of musical movement could be described as schizophrenic this is it but I thoroughly enjoyed its mood swings and it was played with assurance and gusto by the orchestra, conducted by Jonathon Heyward.
From there, the night stuck to charted waters, with soprano Angel Blue going through a few songs from the great American Songbook, which like a pint of John Smiths, were unremarkable, but went down smooth. That said the combination of her persona, bright eyed and playful, blended well with the music of yesteryear and her tonal quality did shine through. After the interval, Heyward led a pulsating performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No 8, which was the undoubted highlight of the night. The energy, the pace and the passion were thrilling throughout, with some terrific playing by the woodwind and brass, and by the time it reached the electrifying finale the goosebumps had taken over, with the man next to me shouting “Olé”. The Proms continue to evolve and thrill.
BBC Proms – www.bbc.co.uk/proms
Athasha Lyonnais
Photo credit: BBC/Mark Allan