BBCPhil/Noseda/Selaocoe review – a proms concert that was everything this festival does well | Results for 2026

‘Tmagic power reunites / All the habit is divided / All men become brothers / Beneath your gentle wings.” Little did the BBC know when they booked Manchester’s BBC Philharmonic to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – which culminated in Schiller’s climax to fellowship and unity – that it marked the appointment of Andy Burnham as prime minister. The “gentle wings” of our new leader will need the length of a 747 to match any fighting group under them, but what a reception from the Promises concerts that were everything this festival does well.

An unusual program on paper – Bach, Beethoven and a new cello concerto – rang out in the hall, where the music of the past and the future were suspended together in continuous succession. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor set the tone. Produced by musicians and Andrew Davis, it had a distinct twinkle in its eye. Expressing certainty, even with determination, the ropes turn sideways suddenly when the wind twists and distorts the head. And is that a celesta doubling the flute – a shimmering ghost in the music machine, a childish distortion of the original organ? It has been cleverly executed, and under the guidance of the great director Gianandrea Noseda, the musicians delighted in the fusion of sonic worlds.

It was a process that was furthered by the UK premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths – a cello concerto “born through” (in the singer’s words) soloist Abel Selaocoe, whose unique talents helped and inspired his unusual style. Paying tribute to Montgomery’s mother – playwright Robbie McCauley – the concerto’s three movements each take McCauley’s poetry as their starting point.

The text is not given directly, instead it informs the research cello, voiceless voice, percussion, throat singing and African music – all performed by Selaocoe, who is not a singer or instrumentalist here but a speaker through voice. There are nods to Bach and Elgar, but the concerto is a piece of its own: a rich tapestry woven between orchestra and soloists that would compare to “McCauley’s new music … of more”. Selaocoe is an interesting shaman among them.

And then there was Beethoven, deliberately and fleetfooted down Noseda, chasing the first wave of the chorale’s astonishing finale. Delivered spontaneously by a powerful group of musicians and the Philharmonia Chorus, hiding the complexity of the composer’s wishes, it was not just a peaceful protest but a progressive, risk-taking, visionary hope. To you, Andy.