Yamada's CBSO Pairs Adams Harmonium with Poulenc at Proms
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- Kazuki Yamada conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a pairing of John Adams's 1980 epic Harmonium with works by Francis Poulenc, a programme the reviewer called 'stylish, witty and thrilling'
- Yamada's reading of Poulenc's 1948 Sinfonietta was described as 'impeccable' — a crisp performance where silky woodwind solos and harp were undercut by clean architectural lines
- The Jussen brothers, the Dutch piano duo who have performed the work since their teenage prodigy years, made their Proms debut in matching suits playing Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos, which the reviewer called 'enormously stylish fun'
- Harmonium was performed with the CBSO Chorus bolstered by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, delivering the rippling textural canvas Adams demands, though the central movement 'Because I could not stop for Death' sagged
- An earlier Birmingham performance of Harmonium lacked 'choral welly' according to the reviewer, making this Proms outing a marked improvement in choral heft
- The reviewer judged the evening a 'frankly monumental achievement' despite quibbling about the central Adams movement's pacing
- Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos was characterised as a 'naughty musical satire' targeting modernism as much as a Mozart piano concerto
Why it matters: Yamada's CBSO programming gamble — wedding the hypnotic seriousness of American minimalism to Poulenc's irreverent wit — paid off, giving the Proms a concert that showcased both the Jussen brothers' Proms debut and a markedly stronger choral performance of Harmonium than the same orchestra managed weeks earlier in Birmingham.
