BBC Prom 54; La fanciulla del West; Joyce DiDonato; Simon Keenlyside; Kronos Quartet

By Fiona Maddocks [The Guardian, 29 August 2010]
Driven and obsessive, drawing on 1970s jazz funk, soul and gospel, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new BBC Proms commission Hammered Out burst noisily upon the world at Thursday’s world premiere conducted by David Robertson. A scrunchy havoc of whip, sleigh bells, saxophones, bass guitar, as well as the full forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Nibelung note of a household hammer for good measure, bashed, danced and whirled through this 15-minute non-stop toccata.