Alexandra Dariescu BBC Proms 2026 · Critical Acclaim
Nadia Boulanger · Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra (PROMS premiere) The Hallé · Kahchun Wong · Royal Albert Hall
“History is not quite finished.” “One hopes this will not be the last Proms appearance for either this remarkable work or its outstanding advocate.” “A magnificent account … the hammering runs towards the end were breathtaking.”
Seen and Heard International
Nadia Boulanger’s Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra provided the real revelation of the first half. Alexandra Dariescu proved a compelling champion, demonstrating exactly the qualities that made Boulanger herself such a formidable pianist: flair, bravura, panache and aplomb.
Dariescu brought remarkable vitality to the solo writing, combining elegance with muscular authority. The shifting moods and sudden changes of character were shaped with imagination, her playing possessing both refinement and dramatic conviction. Rather than treating the work as a historical curiosity, she revealed it as a composition of genuine personality and invention. A particularly striking moment came when a Rachmaninov-like melody was entrusted to the second violins, Dariescu accompanying with remarkable sensitivity and allowing the orchestral line to sing.
Kahchun Wong and the Hallé responded with sensitivity and precision, providing an alert orchestral partnership that allowed Boulanger’s distinctive voice to emerge. Such a persuasive performance revealed a composer whose music deserves far greater recognition.
One hopes this will not be the last Proms appearance for either this remarkable work or its outstanding advocate. For an encore, Dariescu was joined by the Hallé’s principal cellist Rachel Helleur-Simcock, and together they played the third of Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, which went down like wildfire with the audience. Dariescu had proclaimed, ‘History is not quite finished’. Indeed, not quite.
Bachtrack
Dariescu championed Boulanger’s unjustly neglected work from 1912. Looking both backward and forward, it bridges late Romanticism and Impressionism, providing an inspired link between the Ravel and the Rachmaninov that followed. Its structure recalls Franck’s Symphonic Variations (a Proms favourite of yesteryear): a unison statement of the theme unfolds into a continuous sequence of variations, combining dazzling virtuosity with richly coloured orchestral writing, in a work of around 20 minutes.
Dariescu’s commitment to the score never wavered. The opening theme carried a solemnity. One particularly striking passage, where the Rachmaninov-like melody is entrusted to the second violins, provided one of the performance’s highlights. Dariescu accompanied with admirable sensitivity, allowing the orchestral line to sing. Her technical assurance made the formidable piano writing appear effortless, relishing the many contrasting sections, bringing much pianistic colour, conviction and vitality to a work that richly deserves a wider audience. One hopes this will not be the last Proms appearance for either the piece or its outstanding advocate.
Dariescu addressed the audience with much warmth and continued her championship of Boulanger music with an encore. Joined by The Hallé’s principal cellist Rachel Helleur-Simcock, she performed the third of the composer’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano. Judging by the audience’s enthusiastic response to this vivacious miniature, she could easily have played more, but she wisely left them wanting.
Full review: https://bachtrack.com/review-kahchun-wong-dariescu-boulanger-halle-bbc-proms-london-august-2026
MusicOMH ★★★★★
Pianist Alexandra Dariescu joined the orchestra for this item, making her own Proms debut with sparkling élan. The Fantasy is a magical piece that, due to its length and the forces for which it is scored, feels almost like a dark mirror version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The minor-key opening has a sinister character to it from the quietly determined theme in the low strings, and this becomes even more disturbing at the entry of the brass. The piano, light at first, gains power, and the first half of the work becomes, thanks to plenty of heavy pianistic arpeggio work coupled with grand flourishes by the strings, ‘Rachmaninovian’ with even a touch of Hollywood. The variations move through thunderous pounding, an unhinged waltz, a lyrical passage for violins and piano, and into a rhythmic and percussive finale, and here, we hear echoes of Stravinsky, and precursors of full-on Modernism.
Dariescu gave us a magnificent account, meting out the busy virtuosic passages with verve and accuracy (the hammering runs towards the end were breathtaking), yet also summoning a studied, quiet rubato for the more rhapsodic interludes. Wong and the orchestra absolutely nailed the nature of the work, ensuring that balance between orchestra and piano was always perfectly judged, and augmenting, through dynamic shape and instrumental texture, its moodiness.
Determined to correct the Nadia Boulanger imbalance, Dariescu, by way of an encore, joined with the Hallé’s principal cellist, Rachel Helleur-Simcock for a nuanced account of the final movement of the composer’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano.
The Upcoming
Following it was Nadia Boulanger’s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, whose grand opening theme also recalls reverberant bells. The interpretation starred Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu, who sparkled onto the stage and maintained warmth and vim throughout.
The under-performed work was a delight to hear – lush, evocative, folk-inflected and unmistakeably French. Dariescu offered a duet with principal cellist Rachel Helleur-Simcock from Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, which was a spellbinding expression of female vibrancy.
Full review: https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2026/08/06/bbc-proms-2026-alexandra-dariescu-with-the-halleand-kahchun-wong/
