Column: Europe concert diary: Rattle and Berlin Philharmonic at London Proms

Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at the Proms is a big event.

The Proms is the world’s largest classical music festival. Friday night was Proms 64 (with 12 to go). The Berlin Philharmonic is long reputed the world’s most sterling orchestra. As music director of the Berliners for a dozen years, Rattle is the British conductor who has risen higher than any other.

And the Royal Albert Hall, home of the Proms, is big.

For this, the first of two Berlin Philharmonic programs with Rattle, Albert Hall looked to have reached 5,270 of its possible 5,272 capacity. That’s not seats, but capacity, since the center of this cavernous, circular hall (with surprisingly acceptable acoustics) is for standees, with tickets costing around $8.

Just off the plane, I began a quick trip through Europe — eight concerts, seven days, five cities — which this online diary will follow (along with more formal reviews and stories).

On Friday I tried to focus on a huge line of promenaders that snaked further than my bleary eyes could see. The dress was casual, extremely so in many cases, as it can get quite warm in Albert Hall.

The enthusiasm was, if not that of football — there was no violence — extreme. There was chanting. There was bone-rattling stomping. There were deafening cheers.

“I know you know this already,” Rattle told this thunderous army, “there isn’t an audience like this anywhere.” He wasn’t kidding. Suspicious of hysterical hordes, I found it slightly unsettling.

I hope you also know this, but, if not, these hordes put lie to the ridiculous reports about classical music on the wane. Many, many more thousands heard and will continue to hear this concert. The BBC broadcasts and streams all Proms concerts, and it keeps them available online, for free, for a month.

Friday’s program, which was the same that had opened the orchestra’s season in Berlin last week, was Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances and Stravinsky’s “Firebird.” The luster was remarkable. Every little detail was lovingly illuminated, so much so that I was grateful for two very slight horn cracks to indicate that these were real people on stage.

Something very strange seems to be going on. Rattle will leave his Berlin orchestra in four years, with rumors that he might become music director of the London Symphony Orchestra back home. In Berlin, he has moved a very traditional ensemble further, far further, from established tradition than it has been. He has enticed the band, for instance, into an airplane hanger to play Stockhausen. Saturday’s Proms program will be Peter Sellars’ staging of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.”

But Berlin’s tradition may have also moved Rattle just as much into its orb. Friday night’s Berlin Philharmonic was easily recognizable as the ensemble that Herbert von Karajan had legendarily polished between 1954 and 1989.

Rattle is more human and approachable than the magisterial Karajan, but there was still an incomparable amount of sheen to get through in these near perfectly gauged and played performances.

As with a supermodel, that much beauty can be intimidating.

Music Critic Mark Swed is in Europe for the next week to attend some important musical events. He will be sharing his experiences — as well as his criticism — with Culture Monster readers.

Twitter: @markswed