Review: BBC Proms in Bristol: Italian Summer – ‘From rousing crescendo to aching sunset’

Under the Italian Sun marks the last of five BBC Proms concerts in residence at Bristol Beacon. In it, the Welsh National Opera Orchestra run the gauntlet from rousing crescendo to aching sunset — the perfect tonic for my languor the day after Forwards festival.

Soothing, stirring stuff with no two-stepping required. If that’s not the Proms’ new tagline I don’t know what is.

Under the Italian Sun is the fifth and last concert of the BBC Proms residency at Bristol Beacon – photo: Sam Fletcher

Rossini’s famous William Tell overture starts with a relatively sombre cello prelude.

The slight lump in my throat doesn’t last long because the mid-section lulls, but that’s no bother. The iconic gallop of that final act is a promise that delivers with bounce and fervour, the precision of the strings, the brass and cymbals piercing it at intervals. Sublime start.

Carlo Rizzi has a spring in his step throughout, doesn’t he just? Conductors are a case study in lithe, meaningful movements. Rizzi’s liquid gestures are punctuated by lofty little hops. You could watch him the entire time and not feel short-changed.

Puccini composed an intricate, intimate instrumental at 25 years of age. Then he called it Capriccio sinfonico. Then he thought “ah yeah, this will do as my graduation piece”. A tale fit to make anyone feel like a chronic underachiever (or maybe just me).

The sinfonico is a tune-filled, sometimes cartoonish piece. I close my eyes. The winds and strings jostle for airtime. The pace quickens. Slapstick factions squabble on my eyelids.

 

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Mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez appears for the first time to take on Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs. Verrez is a Proms debutant. I’m a regular opera novice. Isn’t that a match made in heaven all wrapped up in the avant-garde of eleven short ditties?

Some of the Folk Songs are a little like yodelling. Others sound lucid and lustful. Others have an almost satirical edge underpinned by skippy flute. My Italian is very rusty indeed (read: non-existent), so it’s all pretty tricky to follow.

It makes sense, then, to respond solely in the emotions of the Italian stereotype. The calm string sections are sipping vino down a cobbled back alley and the jovial upturns are impassioned lashings of Parmigiano Reggiano.

Verrez and the full-whack orchestra navigate both scenes and everything in between with beautiful precision.

The post-interval piece is arguably the highlight: Vespri Siciliani overture by Giuseppe Verdi. Drawing inspiration from the successful Sicilian revolt against a French-born King (waaay back in the 13th century), the overture is often a frenetic affair befitting of the battlefield. Begs the question: are we under the Italian sun or before an Italian gun?

Respighi’s Il Tramonto is a tragedy of the more romantic kind. It charts the lifelong ruminations of a young lady whose lover dies in her arms at sunset. Not optimal Bank Holiday Sunday energy.

But Verrez traces the themes of death, struggle, and peace with the same aplomb as the skilled musicians behind her (some of those melodies from the string section: chef’s kiss). More than a share of the audience melts amid the meandering vocal work.

Here’s a completely contextless comment that I didn’t feel I could omit: one of the percussionists is a spitting image of Mike Ehrmantraut.

 

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And finally we have Elgar’s In The South (Alassio). At over twenty minutes of dense, lush orchestration, its drama rises and falls like the coastline it paints. One moment there’s moody double bass and urgent foreboding, the next there’s a violin solo frolicking jovially along the Ligurian Riviera. It’s pastoral, sweeping, and rather beautiful.

And so, with a flourish of bows and an eruption of applause, the residency of BBC Proms at Beacon Hall comes to an end. The last stamp on a sun-soaked postcard. We go again next year!

Main image: Sam Fletcher

Read next:

• Review: Forwards 2025 – ‘Rosy cheeks and flailing arms’
• Review: BBC Introducing, Bristol Beacon – ‘A grand stage for the emerging local musical talent’
• Review: Mozart, Arvo Pärt and Gavin Higgins, Bristol Beacon – ‘Unexpected moments of joy’
• Review: Symbiosis, Bristol Beacon – ‘A tour de force of catharsis, healing and affirmation’