Prom 29, Royal Albert Hall, London, review: Whoever said Mussorgsky’s characters lacked humanity?

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It may have come of age as a seminal 19th-century opera, but Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina has only now made it to the Proms complete. Even the composer might have been unsure just where his chronicle of conflict between traditionalists and modernizers in the Russia of Peter the Great was headed; un-orchestrated at his death in 1881, it was realized first by Rimsky-Korsakov then by Shostakovich, whose sombrely luminous version was heard this evening.

In an opera where (as with Mussorgsky’s earlier Boris Godunov) ‘Mother Russia’ is the main protagonist, even principal singing roles tend to be subsumed into the ongoing dramatic flow. Yet there was no denying the insights afforded by Ante Jerkunica as the brutish warlord Ivan Khovansky, Vsevolod Grivnov as the hubristic Prince Golitsyn, or of George Gagnidze as the vengeful Shaklovity. Best were Ain Anger as warmly eloquent Dosifey and Elena Maximova whose Marfa radiated inner resolve. Whoever said Mussorgsky’s characters lacked humanity?

The BBC Singers and Slovak Philharmonic Choir gave their all to Semyon Bychkov, who also secured playing of energy and refinement from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In its seismic brass and drums, the closing immolation scene was enough to make ‘Old Believers’ of us all.