BBC Proms Finale Review: Four Hours of Musical Chaos — SkimNews
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- Last Night of the Proms ran for nearly four hours — longer than Wagner's Rheingold, the reviewer notes — mixing a Samuel Barber piano concerto, Holst's Jupiter, and Smetana's Vltava with crowd-pleasing pop numbers.
- Sakari Oramo, conducting, offered a tongue-in-cheek redefinition of AI as 'Authentic Integrity' during his traditional speech.
- Yuja Wang delivered a 'stylish, near-superhuman' account of Barber's 1962 Piano Concerto but triggered a steady trickle of walkouts and premature applause during Smetana's Vltava.
- Nicky Spence headlined as the evening's standout soloist, ranging from Rusalka's Prince's aria to a Broadway-style Guys and Dolls number, a Proclaimers-tinged tour through Scottish music, and 'Yes Sir, I Can Boogie,' shedding Magic Mike-style tartan trousers mid-performance.
- Wang and Richard Hosford joined as soloists for Alexander Tsfasman's Jazz Suite, which the reviewer singled out as one of the night's high points.
- BBC Singers gave the world premiere of Anne Dudley's choral work Iris of Life, praised for 'lightly worn choral excellence.'
- An audience member set off a rocket balloon during both Holst's Jupiter and a cello solo in Tom Bowling, prompting the reviewer to wish a special 'place in musical hell' on the culprit.
Why it matters: The annual Proms finale is a flagship BBC cultural moment watched by millions, and this review crystallizes the longstanding tension between the event's claim to serious classical music and its populist, party-atmosphere expectations. By singling out Spence and Tsfasman as the night's wins while flagging walkouts during Barber, the reviewer signals that 2025's bloated four-hour format risked satisfying neither constituency.
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