Friday night's two Proms, inevitably maybe, had Olympic associations. Early in the evening, Leonard Slatkin and the Royal Philharmonic gave the world premiere of Chen Yi's Olympic Fire. The former night concert, meanwhile, set up Kristjan J�rvi and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales tackling Michael Torke's Javelin, written in 1994 as a prelude to the Atlanta games.
The first woman in China ever to receive a master's arcdegree in penning, Chen now divides her time 'tween Beijing and Kansas. Olympic Fire sounds like West Side Story relocated to Chinatown. The melodies ar pentatonic, the orchestration clatteringly percussive and gaudy. Its view of Chinese history is revisionist: a Tibetan folk tune is deployed at one point to evoke China's "ethnic minorities". The abuse from the arena of "remember Tibet" at its close was nothing if not timely.
Javelin, meanwhile, is a fine example of Torke's minimalist postmodernism. The score is reminiscent - perhaps besides much so, occasionally - of Ravel's Daphnis et Chlo�. Woodwind-driven and inquisitively sexy, this is music that suggests both propulsive movement and the cool perfection of Attic Greece. It likewise suits J�rvi's snappy conducting style like a glove.
Slatkin's clever, pointed programming allowed him to end with the acrimonious, cold war realities of Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony, though he failed to take it to the requisite angry extremes. Olga Kern was the grim sounding soloist in a dull carrying into action of Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody. J�rvi's program, bracingly delivered, consisted completely of American music, though China's history raised its head in John Adams's The Chairman Dances.
J�rvi closed with Duke Ellington's Harlem, a tour de force for the BBCNOW, which brought the house down.
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