Photo, Chris Christodoulou
Franz Schreker: Chamber Symphony
George Gershwin: By Strauss
Kurt Weill: Youkali (Tango Habanera)
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess – ‘Summertime’
Kurt Weill: Lost in the Stars – title song
Igor Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – ‘No word from Tom’
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Die tote Stadt – ‘Marietta’s Lied’
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story – ‘Somewhere’
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird – suite (1945 version)
South African soprano Golda Schultz, the ‘glorious’ star of 2020’s Last Night, returns to the Proms with songs by Bernstein, Gershwin, Weill and others. Bask in the sultry heat of the Deep South in ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess; feel the intensity of first love in ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story. A programme of contrasting moods and colours also includes Schreker’s sensuous Chamber Symphony – glittering and mercurial – and the bold, folk-infused dances of Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird.
Recommended as a fascinating programme that was great to hear live (ie bbc sounds catch-up) The size of the hall meant we got a chamber symphony for about 42 instruments, not 23 but many sections used solo strings effectively.