United Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [13] – Mahler: Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano), CBSO Children’s Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus, BBC National Chorus of Wales (chorusmaster: Adrian Partington), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Ryan Bancroft (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London, 11.8.2025. (JR)
Mahler – Symphony No.3
A packed Royal Albert Hall witnessed a magnificent, mighty Mahler Third Symphony, the composer’s struggle between life’s suffering and finding existential meaning.
Ryan Bancroft, the Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is a highly competent Mahlerian and understands the acoustics of the cavernous Royal Albert Hall. He conducted a very fine Verdi Requiem last season using not one but two huge choirs (I sang in one of them) and the sound more than filled the hall. So, in performing a gigantic Mahler symphony, he opted to augment his orchestra with around 20 musicians from the Orchestra National de Bretagne, and used three choirs, the BBC NOW’s own chorus (their upper voices only required) and two choirs of youngsters down from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Birmingham.
Bancroft confidently grasped the architecture of this huge work, which usually and rightly stands alone in a concert programme. Apparently Norman Del Mar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the premiere at the BBC Proms in 1962 preceded the performance with the Beethoven Leonore Overture and inserted a ‘tea break’ interval after the 30-minute first movement! Bancroft, smiling throughout, enjoyed the occasional frivolities of the work, skipping around on the podium, then punching out the rhythms in the brass to great effect and visually enhancing every huge climax. His control of tempi and dynamics were faultless. The BBC NOW is very fortunate to have him and I would not want to miss any concert he conducts.
The orchestral playing was of the highest order across the board. I must highlight the principal trombone, Donal Bannister, whose solo contribution was a highlight of the evening and earned him an immediate and thoroughly deserved individual congratulation at the close of the performance from the conductor. The nine horns were immaculate; the trumpets had a less than fortunate night. The hypnotic soft post horn solo in the trio section of the third movement was played, virtually flawlessly (that top A is a very hard ask and often splits), by Corey Morris from the Upper Gallery. I will not enter into the debate here about whether it should be played on a post horn (rare), a flugelhorn or a trumpet: Morris got the colour just right. The woodwind were a glory, particularly the jaunty principal oboe. (Oboists names were absent for some reason in the programme and a search indicates his name is Steven Hudson.) There were plenty of strings of course but unfortunately the sound of the leader was not loud enough in her solos, and generally they lacked both depth and bloom. The two timpanists were suitably thunderous and in perfect sync at the work’s closing explosion of sound.
The CBSO Children‘s and Youth choruses sang their ‘bimms’ and their ‘bamms’ without mishap and the ladies of the BBC NOW Chorus, rehearsed by the masterly chorus master Adrian Partington, did not put an angelic foot wrong. What a pity though, that the children’s choruses, 50-strong, only contained a handful of boys – what has gone wrong in this country with musical education for young boys? (I sang this work with the Highgate School Boys’ Choir back in the 1960s, I can’t remember now who conducted; sadly, when our Music Director Edward Chapman retired, we were then usurped by the Wandsworth Boys and they then by Tiffin School.) If we don’t encourage boy trebles, where will the next generation of tenors (and basses) for all our choirs come from? But that’s a debate for another day.
But by far the biggest cheer at the end of the evening was reserved for Scottish mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, for whom I have only the very highest praise. Intonation beyond question, German diction perfect, volume beautifully controlled and audible in the huge hall – a most moving and unforgettable rendition. ‘O Mensch! Gib Acht! Die Welt ist tief … tief ist ihr Weh’, chilling words by Nietzsche in these difficult times. Taylor has both a sparkling top register and a lovely mellow low register, quite a rare combination. I was not surprised at all to read she made her Carnegie Hall debut a few months ago and forthcoming performances will include Mahler’s Second Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarians, the Los Angeles under Gustavo Dudamel, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Montreal under Rafael Payare and the London Philharmonic under Edward Gardner; and, last not least, both Beethoven’s Ninth and Mahler’s Eighth with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko. Taylor has been discovered – what a list!
John Rhodes
Featured Image: Mahler’s Third Symphony at the BBC Proms 2025 © Chris Christodoulou/BBC