‘another Sinfonia of London Prom, another five-star concert’ The Guardian

Last week we headed back to the BBC Proms for the first of two concerts there this summer, bringing with us a programme of Verdi, Walton and Respighi. We heard (and saw) the reaction in the hall for ourselves but what did the critics have to say? 

The Guardian called it a “night of technicolour masterpieces from one of the finest orchestras on the planet” going on to say “John Wilson’s wizardly conducting through Respighi’s Roman Trilogy…brought the audience to their feet”, and awarding it five stars.

The Arts Desk called it “a vintage Prom” while The Times brought us another five-star review: 

“Wilson achieved deft miracles of flexibility, precision and virtuosity without waving his arms around like a latter-day Leonard Bernstein. He gave his hand-picked players exactly what they needed, nothing in excess, and they responded with magical moments, start to finish.”

and also heaped praise upon our soloist for the Walton, Jonathan Aasgaard:

“Jonathan Aasgaard played it without exaggeration or histrionics, but with revelatory subtlety and wonderful technique.”

The Spectator was similarly enthused, naming the evening “concert of the week – currently odds-on to be concert of the year (the Berlin Phil should look to its laurels“

Jessica Duchen writing on Substack capped her review by commenting on our encore :

“they played the last bit of Rossini’s William Tell overture, galloping through the Alps at breakneck speed (my violinist companion for the evening was gripping her bow-arm in sympathetic agony). If you’ve got it, flaunt it – and the Sinfonia can do that. The Sinfonia can do anything“

before ending by saying:

“What if every concert were always like this? Wouldn’t we all be at one every night if we could? We wouldn’t want to miss a single note.”

And that was just the critics. What did the audience in the hall and listening and watching via the BBC have to say? Here are a selection of their views:

“My mate and I frankly struggled to articulate to each other how magnificent this was! One of the finest classical concerts I’ve ever been to and the finale of the Pines of Rome practically had me in tears! Absolutely amazing.” Guardian Comment

“Absolutely incredible performance! Some of the best orchestral playing I’ve heard and the cello concerto was phenomenal’ Instagram

“This was a Prom of sheer musical brilliance” Facebook

“Truly the most magical, moving, thrilling concert experience ever” Instagram

“It was superb. I love watching John Wilson conducting. He has such a unique style. The end of the Respighi where he was asking for “More! More!” was fabulous.”

While one lone dissenting voice said that it “wasn’t their cup of tea”. We suppose you can’t please all the people all the time!

Thank you to everyone who was in the hall, or who listened and watched on the BBC. We hope you’ll join us again on 6 September when we return to the Royal Albert Hall for a morning of music for strings. Details

Images by Chris Christodoulou