Prom 24: Bournemouth SO/Karabits – memorable Rachmaninov defines the show

Royal Albert Hall, London
A work by the conductor’s father Ivan Karabits celebrated Kyiv, and Felix Klieser’s brought zest and panache to Mozart, but the sheer skill and audacity of the BSO in Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony was awe-inspiring

Kirill Karabits’s years with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra have regularly championed music from eastern Europe, including Karabits’native Ukraine. This year’s BSO Proms visit was no exception, opening with a celebration of Kyiv written by Karabits’ late father Ivan. But it was a Russian, Sergei Rachmaninov, whose music emphatically defined this concert in the end.

Ivan Karabits’s single movement First Concerto for orchestra was composed in 1980-1, to mark the 1,500th anniversary of Kyiv. It is a professional piece of scoring, moving deftly from episode to episode. It begins in declamatory mode, like a lot of Soviet-era music, but its most effective writing was more reflective, a lingering flute solo against soft cello accompaniment, and the fragmentary celesta of its final bars, one of several echoes of Shostakovich’s influence.

Available on BBC Sounds until 9 October. The BBC Proms continue until 9 September

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