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Conductor Dalia Stasevska conducted a small orchestra of 65 at the Royal Albert Hall
A moderated version of The Last Night of the Proms was held in London, after a discussion about Rule, Britannia! threatened to overshadow the event.
He saw a shortened version of the BBC Symphony Orchestra play an empty Royal Albert Hall, to comply with coronavirus restrictions.
After a very public fight, the patriotic songs Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory were sung by a small choir.
The BBC was criticized for its plans to omit the letter last month.
Critics said the words evoked a British colonial imperialist past that is at odds with the values of modern Britain and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The BBC insisted its original decision was due less to politics than to the limitations placed on musicians, and choirs in particular, during the pandemic.
But after a backlash in the press and an intervention from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he reinstated the lyrics, saying that socially estranged members of the BBC Singers would perform at the empty Royal Albert Hall booths.
The 2020 season of Proms was drastically shortened by the coronavirus epidemic, with the usual six-week season reduced to fifteen days of live shows, performed without an audience.
The program was simplified in other ways as well, mostly with smaller works, with UK soloists and orchestras.
A reduced orchestra of 65 instead of the usual 300 performed live at the Royal Albert Hall, with the singers in the stalls to ensure social distancing.
However, there were some successful attempts to make the most of the situation.
On opening weekend, Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra placed their metal musicians in boxes around Albert Hall, responding and bumping into each other as they played Giovanni Gabrieli’s metal canzons.
After possible omission, and then indecision, followed by controversy and damp accusations, Britannia finally dominated the airwaves.
And so tradition prevailed over those who thought words were too imperialistic for this age.
But it wasn’t as usual on the last night of this year: it was a walk-free prom, with a socially estranged BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, and barely a flag or hat in sight.
Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, a late replacement for a poor soloist, played Vaughn Williams’ romantic pastoral favorite, The Lark Ascending.
The evening’s talking point is likely to be the radical reworking of Jerusalem’s composer Errollyn Wallen, Hubert Parry’s prom favorite, to which he introduced references to dissonance and blues – a tribute, he said, to the generation Windrush of immigrants who came to Britain.
It was sung, brilliantly, by South African soprano Golda Schultz.
It has been a very strange year; The Pandemic Proms were quite different without a live audience, particularly tonight’s Last Night, in which even Edward Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory seemed off.
Folk singer Laura Marling also made her Proms debut, playing an intimate set of songs accompanied by an undirected string orchestra, The 12 Ensemble.
And the Aurora Orchestra played Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony by heart while standing (as it has become its trademark) drawing praise and admiration on social media.
His performance was paired with a new work by Richard Ayres who, like Beethoven, has suffered from hearing loss for the past 20 years.
In three separate pieces, subtitled “Dreaming, Losing Your Hearing, and Saying Goodbye,” the performers evoked the experience of degraded hearing, with string lines infiltrated by the high-pitched buzz of tinnitus and musical motifs fading and breaking.
Finnish director Dalia Stasevska said she “played no role in deciding the traditional elements of the show” after the controversy over the last night.
The Last Night opened with Mozart’s ever-popular The Marriage Of Figaro, and featured South African soprano Golda Schultz singing Sondheim’s The Glamorous Life and a new arrangement of Jerusalem, by composer Errollyn Wallen.
Violinist Nicola Benedetti was a last minute replacement for Lisa Batiashvili, who retired due to illness, performing Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
In a pre-recorded video segment, director Dalia Stasevska said: “During these challenging times, we musicians have been looking forward to playing together again and playing live.
“Being able to play together again these last two weeks has felt like drinking water after a long thirst.”
- BBC Proms – official site
The BBC said that next year’s Proms would see Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory sung in their entirety, replicating a tradition that dates back to at least the 1950s.
Why is it Rule, Britannia! so controversial?
Rule Britannia! it was set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740, and its lyrics were based on a poem by James Thomson.
It contains verses like: “Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves / The British will never be slaves.”
Land Of Hope And Glory makes a similar reference to the “power” of the former British Empire, which some people find problematic today.
In August, Chi-chi Nwanoku, the founder of Chineke !, an orchestra that has performed at the Proms and whose musicians are mostly black, Asian and ethnically diverse, said Rule, Britannia! it was “offensive”.
He added that any black person “aware of their history, empire and colonialism” would “fight to enjoy the patriotic patriotism of these songs.”
Chineke from Chi-chi Nwanoku! Foundation is about “championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music”
Announcer Jonathan Dimbleby said he had always found that part of the last night “uncomfortable”, suggesting that the second line “misleading” be changed to: “Brits will never, never, never be rascals.”
The BBC said it had originally planned to play the songs in an orchestral version due to coronavirus restrictions, although the singers were required to perform on other Proms nights.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson voiced his objection to the original decision, telling MPs: “People love our traditions and our history with all its imperfections,” adding that attempts to “censor” it were “insane.”
The BBC subsequently reversed the decision, saying: “Both pieces will now include a select group of singers from the BBC”, explaining that the words would be sung in the Hall, with the audience free to sing at home.
It came after CEO Lord Hall was replaced in office by Tim Davie, the former CEO of the BBC Studios business division.
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