Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra are virtually joined at the hip, a giant ensemble finely attuned to one another’s every move. Since Fischer founded the orchestra 42 years ago, they’ve become favourites at the Proms. This time their packed-out evening incorporated two works that emotionally are polar opposites: the brightest of joys in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, followed by a journey into the dark heart of Hungarian music in Bartók’s only opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle . The contrast seems chewy, especially when it’s the first piece that leaves you walking on air.

Sure enough, the Beethoven soared, reborn like a shiny phoenix. Fischer uses economical gestures – a slow shrug to shape the top of a phrase, a lightning flash of baton for precision, or a split second of st

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