Photo, BBC/Chris Christodoulou
REVIEWED FROM LIVE RELAY ON BBC RADIO 3
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Royal Albert Hall, London
This round-the-houses concert never really found a destination, and also demonstrated the Proms’ abysmal marking of the prolific Hans Werner Henze’s centenary, and here it singularly was, a five-minute piece based on a Schubert song (setting Goethe), quite effective if hardly characteristic of Henze’s original orchestral output, including ten Symphonies. No more than Britten’s arrangement of the second movement of Mahler Three, tells us much about either composer, this excerpt from the Mahler Symphony already reduced in scoring by its composer, following the expansive, large-orchestra welcome of Spring, with some subtle additions (if nothing novel) by the young Englishman at a time (early-1940s) when Mahler Symphonies were relatively rare.
A flowing account of Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony (just as likely to be numbered seven these days) followed the Henze with little suggestion of darkness, although the development section accrued greater intensity following a blithe exposition (repeated) and the Andante second movement wasn’t indulged, radiant in quiet passages, edgy in fortissimos – not ending, rather leaving the door open for two further movements. Finally, in every sense, four swansongs by Richard Strauss for Kirsten Flagstad. Natalya Romaniw was the uninhibited soprano, rather forwardly balanced, probably louder as broadcast than in the hall if always sympathetic and complemented by notable horn and violin solos, if let-down by insensitive clapping as the immediate tail-end to each setting whether Eichendorff or Hesse. And so, this insubstantial, pre-prandial, concert was over.
Henze: Erlkönig – orchestral fantasy
Schubert: Symphony No.8 in B-minor, ‘Unfinished’
Mahler: What the Wild Flowers Tell Me (arr. Benjamin Britten)
Strauss: Four Last Songs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030wf5