Published: 10 August 2011
Category: Artists

Mark Wigglesworth returned to the BBC Henry Wood Proms, replacing an indisposed Jiří Bělohlávek, to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus, the BBC Singers, and Trinity Boys Choir for a performance of Benjamin Britten's Cantata Misericordium, Sinfonia da Requiem, and Spring Symphony. The concert opened with the world premiere of Joby Talbot's orchestration of Purcell's Chaconny in G Minor.

"..Apart from Britten himself, the central figure of the evening was Mark Wigglesworth, deputising for an indisposed Jiří Bělohlávek, and proving once again what a very special conductor he is. Wigglesworth's exposition and shaping of the three diverse Britten pieces was extremely fine, starting with the quiet unfolding of the restrained Cantata Misericordium, written for the centenary of the Red Cross, with a Latin text based on the Good Samaritan story. The much earlier Sinfonia da Requiem was no less effective, though in a wholly different way, all tension and drive, appropriate to a work from a less settled part of Britten's evolution.

Wigglesworth's culminating achievement, though, was his compelling grasp of Britten's problematic Spring Symphony of 1949, with its 12 vocal settings, three choirs and soloists (of whom tenor Alan Oke was specially effective in the Peter Pears solos) and, in a place of honour beneath the Albert Hall organ, the last movement's cow horn. Britten's symphony needs to be heard live to be convincing, preferably in a venue such as the Albert Hall, and Wigglesworth supplied a control, conviction and coherence that surpassed any previous rendering of the piece in my experience."
The Guardian, August 2011

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