For my first Prom this season, I went to hear Ryan Bancroft directing the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau and Schoenberg’s Pelléas und Melisande, premiered at the same concert in 1905. Having already written about both works, I was glad to hear them live.

In my youth, besides Ravel‘s Daphnis and Chloé, Schoenberg’s Pelléas left a deep impression on me, attending rehearsals and concerts in the fluid hands of Boulez; with his choices there was always a sense of discovery. At this week’s Prom I could only summon up fleeting glimpses of that magic, but (within the niche of ominous late-Romantic angst) Pelléas is perhaps rather more accessible, so it probably made sense to open the concert with it, building the audience’s attention for Die Seejungfrau after the interval. But either order could work. Ryan Bancroft, brought up in LA, directed fluently—like Boulez, conveying the music with his hands rather than a baton.

Source.

You can hear the concert on BBC Sounds for the next two months. A sumptuous fin-de-siècle opening to the season, then—the previous evening Mark Elder conducted Mahler 5 in his Proms farewell to the Hallé after 25 years with them (available on BBC iPlayer). Even if Mahler towers over just about everyone (do consult my series!), it’s always rewarding to explore the work of his contemporaries and disciples, and to immerse ourselves in the whole culture of early-20th-century Vienna. Though the hall was less than packed, how wonderful that Prom-goers devote such attention and enthusiasm to the less familiar aspects of the symphonic repertoire.

Just a few days later came another fine late-Romantic Prom.