BBC Proms 2025 Beethoven and Bartok from Budapest, Review
Last Updated on August 7, 2025
A Blazing Beethoven 7 and a Blood-curdling Bartók
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
The Budapest Festival Orchestra was formed in 1983 by Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis, with musicians “drawn from the cream of Hungary’s younger players”. The orchestra is ranked as one of the best in the world, and there was a strong sense of anticipation in what was a packed Royal Albert Hall for this concert of Beethoven and Bartók. In what was a diverting break with normal practice, the orchestra used a series of different tuning notes for specific instruments or sections.
Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 7 in A major Op. 92 between 1811 and 1812 while at the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz. By this time, Beethoven’s hearing was deteriorating, and Europe was embroiled in the wars against Napoleonic France. Beethoven finished the Seventh Symphony in April 1812, and it premiered on December 8, 1813, in Vienna at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau. Beethoven himself conducted the premiere, and the work was met with immense enthusiasm—the second movement was encored immediately, reflecting its immediate emotional impact on audiences.
Conductor Iván Fischer set a stately, confident tempo at the top of the first movement, Poco sostenuto – Vivace (A major). The strings took a few moments to settle, but it didn’t take long for the rapt audience to be completely engrossed in the performance, with the main flute solo theme having a gorgeous lilting character. Fischer is a past master at allowing inner thematic narratives to emerge with finely tuned dynamics, intelligent transitions and a masterful control of tempo.
The second movement, Allegretto (A minor), if not quite Karajan-esque in its pacing, unfolded slowly with some extreme dynamics and sonic ebbs and flows. The relentless ostinato and fugal writing combined with the tight, coherent orchestral sound created a sombre, thrilling reading of one of Beethoven’s best-known compositions.
In contrast, the third movement, Presto – Assai meno presto (Trio) burst out with a brilliantly joyous opening, full of detail and precision and with creatively orchestrated folk elements sounding totally at home in the hands of this orchestra. I particularly enjoyed the low and well-delivered French horn stabs.
The final movement, Allegro con brio, is a rambunctious, helter-skelter of a piece driven by muscular string semiquavers and establishing Beethoven as the unassailable Lord of the Dance. The final chord was met with a full-bodied roar from the crowd, who lapped up this outstanding performance.
Béla Bartók’s one-act symbolist psychodrama, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, with its poetic libretto by Jewish-Hungarian writer Béla Balázs, was composed in 1911 but not performed until 1918 in Budapest. Balázs’ take on the Bluebeard mythos derived from a story written by Charles Perrault, the French author who codified the fairy tale genre, transforming folk tales into classics such as “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella”.
The opera’s story is about Bluebeard, returning to his castle with his new wife Judith, who has run away from both family and fiancé to be with the older man. On arrival at the castle, Judith finds a dank, dark, bloodstained space with seven locked interior doors that her husband forbids her to enter. Judith insists that Bluebeard give her access (“Open the door, open the door”); there’s a torture chamber, an armoury, a treasury, a lake of tears, a portal that opens up onto his kingdom, and a garden, and then the seventh chamber which houses Bluebeard’s three previous wives – who Judith will in turn join…
With Bartók’s drama centred around the shifting power dynamics between the two characters, the work is particularly suitable for a concert production with Bartók’s score doing a lot of the dramatic heavy lifting. The score reflects the emotional state of the protagonists as well as the psychic worlds opened by the seven unlockings. For instance, the door that opens up onto grand vistas across Bluebeard’s kingdom is presaged by regal-sounding parallel major chords and the ever-present blood motif is represented by the dissonant stranglehold of a minor 2nd interval. The composer’s musical language shifts from the stridently tonal to the deliciously chromatic with orchestration delivered by the percussion-heavy extended orchestra that encompasses brass fusillades, woodwind flourishes and the luscious sonorities of the opening strings. Melodies are infused with the spiky asymmetry of Hungarian folk music.
Conductor Iván Fischer delivered the opening monologue of Bartók’s work in Hungarian, cuing the double bass introductory motif with his back to the performers. The score is full of foreboding and drew last night’s audience fully into the drama.
Having two stellar Hungarian leads was a brilliant piece of programming, adding authenticity and insight to the performance of Bartók. Mezzo Dorottya Láng as Judith used her mane of hair as a dramatic device, and in her fabulous scarlet shoes makes the fatal mistake hubristic error of believing that the power of her love with change her man from an aristocratic psycho to someone keen to enjoy weekend trips to B&Q. Láng moved convincingly from being a lovesick newly-wed eager to please her man, to a woman on the edge of hysteria as she started to understand her fate. She has a rich, luscious mezzo backed up by plenty of power and a shining upper register, and is a class act. I’d love to see more of her on the London operatic stages.
Krisztián Cser as Duke Bluebeard brought a sombre sense of restraint to the part, regularly intoning a chilling ‘are you afraid’ to his new bride. Cser has a majestic and powerfully resonant instrument that cut through the hall’s acoustic like a hot knife through butter.
Iván Fischer and the band delivered a knock-out performance of these two classics that will stay in the collective memory of those of us lucky enough to be in the audience. The lady sitting next to me was celebrating her 95th birthday, and I asked her if she enjoyed herself. ‘It was amazing, ‘ she said, and she was right.
Evenings like this are what the Proms should be about. If you have never been to one, there is a wide diversity of programming with something for everyone, and it is a magical experience. Or you can always listen live on Radio 3 and you’ll find Beethoven and Bartók from Budapest on BBC Sounds for the next two months
For the full Proms programme, check here
Beethoven and Bartók from Budapest
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore,
South Kensington,
London SW7 2AP
Looking for something different? Check our review of Katya Kabanova, currently showing at Glyndebourne
