Aurora returned to the BBC Proms in August 2021 with a roof-raising concert of Russian music, to ecstatic reviews. Watch the full concert here on BBC iPlayer.
The Times *****
Atmosphere. That’s what I’ve been missing. The sense of an entire audience almost holding its breath to hear the softest phrase of Chopin on the piano; the surge of adrenaline as an orchestra unleashes Stravinsky’s primal force; the near unanimous wave of energy as people get to their feet to give a standing ovation. Yes, even the cheer from the prommers in the arena when an A is played on the piano for the orchestra to tune. I’ve missed it all. Well, the Aurora Orchestra delivered everything above, plus playing of the highest order — and it felt as if the Proms had truly returned.
Evening Standard *****
Stravinsky from memory proved dazzling
The orchestra that does everything from memory proves once again it’s no gimmick – just deeply-felt, immersive music-making at its best
Arts Desk
Nicholas Collon’s ensemble has taken a one-off novelty – an orchestral performance from memory – and made it an annual festival fixture. There’s a formula, of course, but thanks to Collon himself and co-presenter Tom Service, it has never yet felt rigid. To teach an audience something without patronising or it feeling like school is the hardest trick to pull off, but thanks to bags of enthusiasm (and the odd viola joke) they reliably leave us all better informed and – better still – fired up to listen more and more carefully. If the BBC are serious about refreshing their arts content they could do a lot worse than deploy Aurora for a series of Bernstein-style programmes. Just think of the impact.