BBCSO/Oramo review – Bray's restless writing is centrepiece of a varied Prom

Royal Albert Hall, London
Charlotte Bray’s cello concerto asked rather than answered questions and was played with absolute engagement by Guy Johnston

Even with Mahler’s fifth symphony and a Haydn rarity in the programme, Charlotte Bray’s new cello concerto, Falling in the Fire, was the centrepiece of this unfailingly interesting and varied Prom.

The concerto confronts two important, linked questions with which many creative artists have wrestled: how can a composer respond to the great public issues of the day – in this case the war in Syria – and how can any such response avoid being judged on moral as much as on musical grounds? Bray’s concerto sensibly embodies these questions rather than answering them.

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