Proms 9, 10, 12 ,13: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra; Cadogan Hall Proms; Falstaff – review

Royal Albert Hall; Cadogan Hall; Opera Holland Park, all LondonOne of Daniel Barenboim's more unnerving habits, witnessed during his electrifying Beethoven-Boulez cycle at the Proms this week, is to stop conducting mid bar, usually when the orchestra is going full throttle and the tempo is breakneck. Typically he prods, pokes, throws punches at his players – gestures only, that is – before gathering them in like a bundle of loose lagging, casting his arm in a big arc and leaving them to it u...

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