In its single contribution to this year’s promenade concerts, the London Philharmonic Orchestra took us to exotic and faraway regions, as far from the Albert Hall as one could imagine. Only La mer, completed at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, conjured the swell of the English Channel something a little more than an hour away from London.
Proceedings began in this watery themed concert with Sibelius’s The Oceanides – a seascape commissioned in 1914 inspired by ancient Greek mythology, and one of the few tone poems by the composer not associated with Scandinavian legends. Edward Gardner steered the LPO through an atmospheric and detailed account bringing out all the work’s briny tints; playfulness to the fore with delicate flutes cavorting as nymphs and mysterious oceanic depths conjured by rich string sonorities. Shifting plates of sound and accumulating layers, brass gradually ripening, led inexorably to a single climax before subsiding like a spent wave coloured by a hauntingly sinuous oboe.
A no less atmospheric account followed with a rare performance of Tippett’s The Rose Lake, a work premiered in 1995 prompted by a holiday in Senegal some years earlier. What had then left a deep impression on the composer was the sight of a lake at midday where the midday sun had altered its whitish green surface to translucent pink, a magical transformation owing to a particular alga that produces a red pigment. Begun on metre high sheets of manuscript paper, Tippett referred to his finished work as a “song without words for orchestra”. It’s ambitiously scored and includes no fewer than nine percussion players of whom two oversee a row of chromatically tuned rototoms. One could only admire the athleticism of the two players, their nimble movements reminding me (even if the numbers don’t fit) of ‘ten lords a-leaping’ from The Twelve Days of Christmas. From its initial translucent textures and mellow horn calls, the work’s multi-dimensioned palette and linked sections unfolded seamlessly, Gardner ensuring the five ‘Lake Songs’ had a distinct rapture along with a rhythmic precision for passages of jangled counterpoint. It was a performance of undoubted virtuosity, underlining the work’s still-youthful exuberance, notwithstanding its composition by someone in their late 80s.
From Tippett’s African inspired work, we headed to Asia for Ravel’s three-part oriental fantasy that is Shéhérazade. An early work from 1903, this evocative tour of China, India and Persia gave expressive opportunities for the Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, here making her Proms debut. And what a fulsome, richly luxurious voice she has, her opening declamation ‘Asie’, amply suiting Tristan Klingsor’s emotionally charged poems if, arguably, not as soft as one might have wished for. She soared comfortably over the orchestra with no small degree of fervour, but at times left little room for dreaming in her repeated petitions of “Je voudrais voir”. But at the movement’s climax she produced a resplendent high B flat. Eloquent flute arabesques brought distinction to “La flûte enchantée”, where rapture, if not always languor, was a recurring presence. A more tender quality from Akhmetshina arrived in “L’indifférent”, the soloist now finding some poise and subtle shading, the whole beguiling not least for the impeccable orchestral support.
The LPO were equally at home with the play of light and changing colouration of Debussy’s La mer, inspired more by the paintings of Monet and J.M.W. Turner than the sea itself. In this account, Gardner charted a fine balance between mystery and turmoil and bringing the arrival of midday to a magisterial climax. ‘Jeux de vagues’ was light and refreshing, with a dash of salt-spray and fluidity. Most impressive was the closing ‘Dialogue du vent et de la mer’ (complete with fanfares), where glassy strings, priapic horns and scorching trumpets were all brightly signposted, the emotional temperature swelling to an impressive if not entirely tumultuous send off.
David Truslove
Edward Gardner Conducts the LPO (BBC Proms 2025)
Sibelius – The Oceanides; Tippett – The Rose Lake; Ravel – Shéhérazade; Debussy – La Mer
Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano); London Philharmonic Orchestra; Edward Gardner
Royal Albert Hall, London, 10 August 2025
All photos © Andy Paradise