Prom 55 and 56, classical reviews

Royal Albert Hall, London

The string sections plays during the first night of the Proms, 2014 (Getty Images)

In the hands of its players, the sheng mouth-organ looks like a bunch of petrified icicles, and its sound has an appropriately icy purity.

Its origins lie in ancient imperial China, with the Japanese sho being a close relation; until recently it’s functioned as an ensemble instrument, but Unsuk Chin’s Su – being a symphonic concerto for it – is an indication of its new status as a solo instrument.

Wu Wei, who is the world’s top sheng player, was the soloist in this Proms premiere, and his finely-calibrated effects were beautifully complemented by the Seoul Philharmonic under Myung-Whun Chung. Unsuk Chin’s music is always understated and subtle, and this twenty-minute piece made a lovely showcase for Wu Wei’s evanescent talents. As a well-mannered conversation between two strikingly unequal partners, it ebbed and flowed like the sea, creating a watercolour world of ruminant suggestiveness.

Prom 56 saw Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra plus Choir give a rousing performance of Holst’s The Planets, a limpid one of Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces Op 16, and – with Alexander Toradze at the piano – make a bold attempt at realising Scriabine’s apocalyptic visions in Prometheus: The Poem of Fire.

Excellent playing in this latter work; shame about its concomitant ‘lighting design’, whose garish clumsiness was more redolent of a low-rent disco.