Page 57 - Coverage Book_Aurora Orchestra Autumn 2020
P. 57
10 September 2020
FIRST NIGHT | PROM
Aurora Orchestra/Collon review —
startlingly joyous in its
unpredictability
Royal Albert Hall
new
Richard Morrison
Friday September 11 2020, 12.00pm, The Times
The conductor Nicholas Collon led Aurora in a stupendous BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London
★★★★★
It’s a personal tragedy for Richard Ayres to have suffered 20 years of hearing loss, but also a
tragedy for the wider musical world. Cornish-born Ayres is one of the quirkiest and most
original composers around. His premieres are predictable only in being utterly unpredictable,
and I hope he continues to startle us for years to come.
He will never write a more personal or touching orchestral piece, however, than the one
premiered by Aurora under Nicholas Collon in this stupendous BBC Prom. Called No 52 (Three
pieces about Ludwig van Beethoven: dreaming, hearing loss and saying goodbye), it drew
obvious affinities with, and perhaps comfort from, the afflictions of the composer born 250
