Prom 25: BBCSO/Robertson – review

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe theme of this BBC Symphony Orchestra Prom, according to its conductor David Robertson, was "the notion of reflection and questioning", an accurate if ambiguous description. Robertson opened with Ives's The Unanswered Question, following it with Barber's Adagio for Strings. Given that Barber's threnody doesn't satisfactorily answer Ives's transcendentalist enigma, the juxtaposition created a sense of nagging unease. The Adagio's association with communal mourning, how...

Read full article Share article