Cultural Dessert

BBC Proms Folk Day

21 July 2008

The last time I saw Bella Hardy she was performing to an audience of 18 people in the bar at the Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple (reviewed here in March 2008): on Sunday she was standing in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall singing, unaccompanied, to an audience of thousands. We were in London for the BBC Proms Folk Day - an enjoyable and varied innovation in the Proms calendar. Firstly we joined the crowds in Kensington Gardens to see live music on the bandstand, dancing round the maypole and much more, culminating in an electrifying performance from the wonderful Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006). Bellowhead went on to conquer the Albert Hall in the Sunday evening Prom (broadcast live on BBC Four and available on iPlayer) but being part of the crowd dancing in the sunshine in front of the bandstand to 'London Town' was very special. We then crossed the road to the Albert Hall for the free afternoon Prom which featured a huge cast of performers including Bella Hardy, the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins, the mezzo-soprano Monica Bacelli and the amazing Hungarian folk group Muzsikas. The concert compared and contrasted traditional performances of folk melodies (by Bella Hardy and Muzsikas) with classical settings of the same tunes by Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Berio and Bartok. I particularly enjoyed Monica Bacelli's theatrical approach to Berio's hauntingly sparse 'Folk Songs' and the perfect joins between the Muzsikas insertions in the London Sinfonietta's performance of Bartok's 'Romanian Dances' (with the orchestra augmented by young musicians aged 14 - 18 from the Camden and Hertfordshire Music Services). Muzsikas were fantastic - amazingly precise and polished performers of a very rough village folk band sound. But the show was stolen by the young players of Folkestra - an ensemble of 13 - 19 year olds based at the Sage, Gateshead. Their set was the most exciting thing on the programme - toe-tapping, virtuosic and fascinating to watch - with wonderful clarsach playing by Emily Hoile and a thrilling moment when Sarah Norris put down her whistle and, amid the frenzied playing of her colleagues, walked slowly to the small dance square at the front of the stage to add her clogs to the frantic rhythm of the piece - magical. The concert finished with the premiere of 'Confluence' - a work for the joint forces of the London Sinfonietta, Muzsikas and Folkestra by Folkestra's Musical Director, Kathryn Tickell. It was a super day.

Labels: Concerts, Music

posted by Robin Simpson @ 5:17 pm