Prom – Dvorak and Mendelssohn – 04 August 2026
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor: Elena Schwarz
Violin: Alina Ibragimova
Elena Schwarz is an interesting conductor to watch – grounded (literally: in flat shoes and feet well apart), incisive and clear but also passionate. National Orchestra of Wales, ably led by Lesley Hatfield who contributed some good solos, was in very competent hands on this occasion.
Billed as “Dvorak and Mendelssohn”, the concert, of course, started with something unfamiliar but in this case the “novelty” piece was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. Marchen Suite (1950) by Bernd Alois Zimmermann is extravagantly scored and sat quite aptly in the Royal Albert Hall at its first Proms performance.
A seven-movement suite gives a mysterious otherworld prologue followed by a delicately tuneful musette. Then it gets darker but with fine playing from the brass in the Das Ritt durch den Wald section and some richly engaging work by harp, celesta and cellos with solo violin in Die Erscheinung. It is arresting piece with a lot of menacing undertow, delivered here with panache. It deserves to be heard more often.
Looking stunning in a cerise silk two piece, Alina Ibragimova then arrived to play the Mendelssohn’s violin concerto while many players left the stage and the size of the orchestra reduced. She played the opening movement with unusual tenderness and some of the softest pianissimi I’ve ever heard in this work. The passage in which the violin plays with flute and oboe toward the end of the movement was especially lovely. So was the transition into the andante which Schwarz delivered with carefully placed precision to ensure that we heard and responded to every note. There was a tiny wobble at the beginning of the third movement but it soon danced away – all smiles and lots of sunny E minor. It was an assured performance.
And so to an enjoyable account of one of Dvorak’s three best known symphonies: No 7 in D minor, commissioned by London Philharmonic Society and first performed at London’s St James’s Hall in 1885 with the composer on the podium.
Highlights of the BBC NOW performance included delightful horn detail in the opening Allegro and lots of lyricism and colourful dynamic control in the Adagio. Then there was fine flute playing in the “trio” section of the Scherzo and lots of cheerful grandiloquence contrasted with the delicacy of the “tip-toe” motif in the finale. Best of all though, was the magnificently dramatic decelerando before the end. Yes, it was exaggerated but it worked a treat.
