Review: BBC PROMS: BERLIOZ'S ‘SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE’, Royal Albert Hall

The National Youth Orchestra is now a regular participant at the BBC Proms, tonight conducted by Thomas Adès. Devils inspire the programme, with Liszt’s "Mephisto Waltz No.1" and Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique", accompanied by Adès's own "Dante – Part 2: Purgatorio", written for the ballet Dante.

With the orchestra aged between 14 and 19, these are excellent musicians, inspired and enthused about their craft. Sometimes the woodwind and brass sections stand up for sections of the music. The percussion, both on stage and in the gallery for the Berlioz, are lively and committed. The string section allows for melodies to soar and develop. The joy of these young people is evident in every note; their passion for their craft carries across to the audience as we anticipate each segment of the programme.

Liszt's piece takes inspiration from the legend of Faust, a man who gives his soul to the Devil for unlimited knowledge and power. "The Mephisto Waltz No.1" offers a glimpse into a dance at an inn, where Mephisto/The Devil tempts Faust into an intense burst of physical pleasure. It's a playful piece with moments of frenzy alongside passages of great beauty.

The Adès "Purgatorio" uses recorded chants - from the Ades Synagogue, "Jerusalem" - to almost offer a sheen of competition with the live instruments, offering an uneasy courtship between the two in a dark, disturbing, and demonic piece. Having seen the music used in "The Dante Project", with the dancers' imagery interpreting the melodies, I felt it did not work quite as well as a standalone piece, but the musicians' skill lifts it and conjures the image of a soul trapped between paradise and the inferno.

After the interval, the Berlioz "Symphonie fantastique", with its tormented young man and his disquieting visions. Bells, tubas and bassoons, drums, flutes and strings all flit through this intense and absorbing piece. Just as the choir, detached from the main stage, floats through Adès' own composition, so do the instruments set up in the gallery. 

Although well-known to even the most casual of classical music listeners, it is always a privilege to hear the piece live, and the National Youth Orchestra seize the opportunity. Berlioz was part-inspired by his attraction to the actress Harriet Smithson, a woman he was eventually introduced to after seven years, leading to their marriage. The five sections of the "Symphonie fantastique" get ever more unsettling. Dancing and pastoral themes give way to an opium-induced nightmare and a disconcerting witches' sabbath.

At the end of a remarkable evening with such a young and driven group of musicians, the choice of a piece of music from the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice gave a celebratory, end-of-term feel to send us out into the night.

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