Review of the Spanish National Orchestra / Afkham – The first appearance of the Proms sees the orchestra’s celebrations begin early | Concerts 2026

WNight hat for Spain. No, not because of sporting events in New Jersey, but because — nearly 90 years after its founding — the National Orchestra is making its Proms debut under conductor David Afkham in a packed Royal Albert Hall. It was a beginning, but also a celebratory end: Afkham passes the baton to Kent Nagano for next season. They came prepared, with bags full of Spanish music and castanets – oh, and a team-specific football scarf, as designed by Afkham during the appearance.

Afkham’s more than decade-long career with the orchestra culminated with a Spanish repertoire, building on a legacy that earned the band a Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album under Josep Ponce in 2010. Afkham didn’t stray too far from the formula here in a program packed with national treasures, though noticeably lacking in contemporary Spanish music.

We were promised the “rhythms of Spain” and they got straight to work on Ravel’s sparkling “Alborada del gracioso,” a solo on the sad clown. Like De Falla’s Fantasia baetica that follows (first heard at the Proms in Francisco Cole’s colorful 2022 arrangement), it is originally a solo piano piece; Glamor is included. But in these relaxed, medium-paced and spacious novels, subtlety becomes something softer and more relaxed.

Guitarist Rafael Aguirre (winner of an astonishing 13 first prizes in international competitions) rode this wave of sun-warmed dreams in a soothing account of Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez. With his good nature and popular directness in framing the outer movements, he found another color for the sad slow movement, where the cadenza urges us in rather than extending a helping hand. Sensitive to his soloist, he kept the orchestra’s grandiose under tight control. The effect was strangely subdued, subdued even at important moments.