Le Concert Spirituel's Striggio marred by flawed staging choices at the BBC Proms

Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel
© BBC/Mark Allan

Le Concert Spirituel

Hervé Niquet

BBC Proms
7.30pm, Sunday 17 August, 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★

Anonymous: Plainchant 'Beata viscera Marie virginis'

Benevolo, Orazio (1605-1672): Laetatus sum

                                                  Miserere

Corteccia, Francesco (1502-1571): Bonum est confederi

                                                        Gloria Patri

Striggio, Alessandro (c.1536/37-1592): Mass 'Ecco sì beato giorno' - Kyrie

Massenzio, Domenico (1586-1657): Ave Regina caelorum

Striggio, Alessandro: Mass 'Ecco sì beato giorno' - Gloria

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da (1525/26-1594): Peccavimus

Corteccia, Francesco: Alleluia

Striggio, Alessandro: Mass 'Ecco sì beato giorno' - Credo

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da: Beata est Virgo Maria

Benevolo, Orazio: Magnificat

Striggio, Alessandro: Mass 'Ecco sì beato giorno' - Sanctus, Benedictus

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da: Pater noster

Massenzio, Domenico: Filiae Jerusalem

Striggio, Alessandro: Mass 'Ecco sì beato giorno' - Agnus Dei

Corteccia, Francesco: Tu puer propheta altissimi

Striggio, Alessandro: Motet 'Ecce beatam lucem'

Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel
© BBC/Mark Allan

'A bell striking signalled the performers’ entrance, with an anonymous plainchant Beata viscera Marie virginis over droning sackbuts. They processed to form a circle around conductor Niquet, terraced to two or three levels'.

'For the vast majority, the view was of the circle’s rear, with many of the musicians at the circle’s inside lower level invisible ... some lower voices at the top of the outside tier were much more audible than the lighter higher voices, hidden in the inner circle.

'The full tutti sound, with the brightness of the instruments, was richly textured in the Gloria and the loud plea for “pacem” at the end of the 60-part Agnus Dei was impressive'.

'Of the other works, Orazio Benevolo’s Magnificat stood out as the most effective. Contrast was achieved here by alternating passages for voices with instrumental sections'.

'Striggio’s other 40 part work, the motet Ecce beatam lucem had a decent pace to it, and the swells at “O quam” and “O mel” were effective'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Nicholas Collon and Aurora Orchestra pull off another dramatic performance from memory

Max Revell as Dmitry Shostakovich
© BBC/Andy Paradise

Max Revell (actor/dancer)

Polly Frame (actor)

Craig Stein (actor)

Sarah Twomey (actor)

Samuel West (voice of Stalin)

Petroc Trelawny (voice of Telephone Operator)

Aurora Orchestra

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Alexandra Wood (leader)

Jane Mitchell (co-director, scriptwriter)

James Bonas (co-director)

Scott Graham (for Frantic Assembly) (co-director)

Sean Hollands (for Frantic Assembly) (associate to Scott Graham)

Zakk Hein (video designer)

David Bishop (lighting designer)

BBC Proms
7.30pm, Sunday 16 & 17 August, 2025 (reviewed at 17 August performance)
Royal Albert Hall, London

Max Revell (Shostakovich), Frantic Assembly,
Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon
© BBC/Andy Paradise

★★★★

Shostakovich's Fifth by Heart

A musical and dramatic exploration of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5

Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47

'Dancer Max Revell, a silent Shostakovich, contorted and twisted his body, literally pulled in all directions. Men in black lifted and manhandled him, and also some of the musicians, who played their examples while upside down or in the air'.

'The device to demonstrate parallel interpretations of the symphony worked and, as ever with Shostakovich, there’s no definitive answer'.

Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra
© BBC/Andy Paradise

'The standing musicians were at their freest to move and engage with each other, with sections of violins moving as one body as they scurried forward'.

'The snare commenced the final build-up to the spectacular finish, and every musician knew exactly where this was going, but also their part in getting us there'.

'Sunday lunchtime never felt so elementally exhilarating!'

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.