BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Royal Albert Hall / BBC Radio 3

The Times
Geoff Brown

[Saraste's] care and love was apparent in the orchestra's sensuous response to the work's Impressionist kaleidoscope, flickered with little fanfare figures and bizarre instrumental couplings (at the start, contra-bassoon and piano prowl on the ocean floor).

Debussy passed most of the orchestra work on to another music adventurer, Charles Koechlin; but whoever's handiwork we enjoyed on Sunday, the results were always fascinating. This score should be much better known.

Extra fire and folk lilt was required for Enesco's Romanian Rhapsody No 1, though this was certainly music with an audible heart. Then Yuri Bashmet's viola arrived, with Bartók's unfinished Viola Concerto, heard in Tibor Serly's completion. Serly's version, awkwardly scored and structured at times, presents numerous problems. Unlike Bashmet's viola, an utter charmer right from the mellow lyrical opening to the last movement's dizzy whirl, where the instrument shakes off all usual introspection. Throughout, Saraste and the BBCSO provided sensitive accompaniment; but it was Bashmet alone who persuaded us that there might be more to this problem child than ever met the ears before.