Michael White’s classical news: The Trojans; Bruckner’s 8th Symphony; The Rite of Spring; Pygmalion

Thursday, 31st August — By Michael White

Michael Spyres heads the cast of The Trojans at the Proms on Sunday [Marco Borrelli]

UNLESS you’ve been vacationing in Greenland you’ll have heard about the anger-management issues that forced conductor John Eliot Gardiner to step down from this coming Sunday’s Prom (reminder: he took a backstage swipe at a young bass singing in the show), and many a column inch it’s filled over the past week of otherwise thin August news. But it does mean that the performance of Berlioz’s The Trojans which fills both afternoon and evening of Sept 3 at the Albert Hall will be a still more spotlit affair than the BBC had envisaged, with people piling in to see what happens. And what happens in The Trojans is, even without backstage brawls, high drama.

It’s the grandest of Grand Operas, lasting over five hours and telling the story of Virgil’s Aeneid in beyond-epic terms. Which is why it’s rarely done complete. As Berlioz has it, the plot focuses on the tragic love between Dido and Aeneas (further reminder: he dumps her), but there’s plenty of swords & sandals action besides. And the cast assembled by Gardiner for this momentous project is strong, led by Paula Murrihy and Michael Spyres as the lovers, with Alice Coote prophesying to deaf ears as Cassandra.

The sad thing is that Gardiner himself – a bruiser but a fine conductor – won’t be there to take charge: an assistant will step in. But you still get the most spectacular event on offer at this year’s Proms. And somewhere amid the enormity of it all will be the young bass, William Thomas, who took Gardiner’s punch and could well turn out to be the unplanned star of the show.

• Meanwhile, another grand event at the Proms this week is Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, performed on Sept 4 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov – another fine conductor, though less pugilistic. Bychkov is in fact a serious master of this repertoire, and someone who can be relied on to control its massive scale. Which makes this concert one to note.

And notable for different reasons is the performance of Stravinsky’s balletic blockbuster The Rite of Spring which, on Sept 2, gets the special treatment that Nicholas Collon and his Aurora Orchestra have made their speciality in the Proms. They play from memory. And with no music stands to get in the way, they dramatise the story behind the piece, using movement, narration, and actors. It’s an ideal way to get to know the piece, for anyone who doesn’t. And for those who do, it will refresh your thinking.

On the subject of rethinking, Sept 7 brings the brilliantly engaging period performance group Pygmalion over from France with its charismatic young conductor Raphael Pichon. And together, they perform a familiar piece – Mozart’s Requiem – on unfamiliar terms, with the sections of the Requiem intercut by other works by Mozart that Pichon thinks will illuminate them in some way or other. I believe him, and encourage you to do the same!

• Details of all the Proms at bbc.co.uk – and remember, every one gets broadcast live on Radio 3, with catch-up on the BBC Sounds app.