Review of the First Night of the Proms: “What Were They Thinking?”

The evening kicked off with a captivating fanfare composed by Arthur Bliss in 1944 for Sir Henry Wood, the inaugural conductor of the Promenade Concerts. This piece featured a dynamic ensemble of three trumpets, three trombones, and timpani. Following that were two well-loved classics: Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave overture, which was beautifully interpreted by Oramo, and Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, brought to life with imagination by Lisa Batiashvili. Though the concerto’s introspective passages can be challenging to convey in such a venue, Batiashvili mesmerized the audience, flawlessly navigating the virtuosic sections.