Is anyone excited about the Proms 2013 Schedule?

[Charlie]

" ... Why do you ask, c ?

Incidentally, much of our greatest creative musical talent has , IMO, operated in other areas of music."

We were being provocative, teamsaint, as french frank spotted! In our opinion, our greatest musical talent is not confined to Britain, nor even to classical music. Popular music was a great innovation of the twentieth century, and it is well represented at the Proms this summer. Of course, tension is inevitable, french frank, although it is to Radio 3's credit, in our opinion, that the Proms is truly global in its reach!

[Nick Armstrong]

We

LOL

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

LOL

I think we should be spelling charlie with a kleines c, Caliban.

I think the 2013 Proms season fails to excite because it followed such a strong season last year. Yes, I shall move heaven and earth to be at the RAH for Les siecles in The Rite of Spring and there are one or two other orchestral concerts I may book for. Operatically, a resounding cheer for Tippett's Midsummer Marriage. I'll be seeing Billy Budd down at Glyndeditz and the Wagner x 7 strikes me as overload when Verdi is treated so shabbily.

So, excited about the Proms schedule? Sorry, Roger, not hugely.

[EdgeleyRob]

'Is anyone excited about the Proms 2013 Schedule?'
Yes,Roger Wright is.

[Charlie]

"I think we should be spelling charlie with a kleines c, Caliban.

I think the 2013 Proms season fails to excite because it followed such a strong season last year. Yes, I shall move heaven and earth to be at the RAH for Les siecles in The Rite of Spring and there are one or two other orchestral concerts I may book for. Operatically, a resounding cheer for Tippett's Midsummer Marriage. I'll be seeing Billy Budd down at Glyndeditz and the Wagner x 7 strikes me as overload when Verdi is treated so shabbily.

So, excited about the Proms schedule? Sorry, Roger, not hugely."

And I must insist that we spell Charlie with a Big C, Il Grande Inquisitor, at all times. As I note that you will also be attending Prom 4, however, let me take this opportunity to invite you (Caliban, french frank and all true Friends of Radio 3) to join us for a glass of champagne! As you all know, the Royal Albert Hall is a bit of a labyrinth, but what I would suggest would be the new Berry Bros. & Rudd No.3 Bar an hour before Prom 4 (6:30pm on Sunday 14 July 2013). This is down in the basement (Level -1) next to the Arena.

Royal Albert Hall - Berry Bros. & Rudd No.3 Bar

Ask for Charlie at the bar, Il Grande Inquisitor, with a Big C! Because of the day, we shall naturally toast the storming of the Bastille, the French Revolution and the centuries which have followed. What a riot at the Rite!

BBC - Prom 4: Les Siècles – The Rite of Spring

[Hornspieler]

'Is anyone excited about the Proms 2013 Schedule?'
Yes,Roger Wright is.

A mixed reaction so far, then.

For myself, I think there is an overkill of Easterm European music and, (as some have mentioned), a dearth of 20th century British music, with the exception of the favoured five - Elgar, Britten, Tippet, Walton and RVW .

My interests in the former stop after Janacek, Kodaly and Bartok.

My interests in the latter include Edmund Rubbra, Robert Simpson, Arnold Bax, Malcolm Rayment, Daniel Jones and Frederick Delius*.

So which programmes or visiting orchestras and artists catch your eye?

Maybe there is something that I've missed.

HS

* In 1956, I played the two Delius Dance Rhapsodies under Sir Thomas Beecham. Fantastic music, but I don't remember ever hearing them played since. How many times have we heard Rachmaninoff's (excellent) "Symphonic Dances" broadcast over those last 50+ years?

[Suffolkcoastal]

In answer to the original question, No. I've managed to find three proms to put on my booking list but will probably only go to two (I'm not sure I'll get in to one of them). A lot of the repertoire is becoming the same, and there seem to be a lot of CFM Hall of Fame pieces this year. Since RW took over his personal preferences seem to have taken preference and a whole raft of composers have been minimalised or sidelined altogether. The absence or virtual absence of two 20th century composers in their anniversary years is appalling, Hindemith's total snubbing is an insult and with just the one chamber work the absence of Poulenc from the main concerts is almost equally insulting (though the latter is surprising as Poulenc appears normally to be among RWs more favoured composers). The lack of Haydn is very poor, but then the classical era is never that well served apart from Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven & Schubert (though this year even the other three aren't doing that well). American music continues to get a very raw deal, as do composers like Martinu, there's no Bartok this year and Scadinavian composers outside the big three generally now also get a raw deal.
The Proms is an enviable opportunity to work with orchestras and conductors to create imaginative programmes and give composers who are not so often in the limelight an opportunity to shine, there is a small amount of that this year, but even some of this, is shall we say, not well thought through.

[Mahler's3rd]

Thanks for the info Amateur51

[teamsaint]

A mixed reaction so far, then.

For myself, I think there is an overkill of Easterm European music and, (as some have mentioned), a dearth of 20th century British music, with the exception of the favoured five - Elgar, Britten, Tippet, Walton and RVW .

My interests in the former stop after Janacek, Kodaly and Bartok.

My interests in the latter include Edmund Rubbra, Robert Simpson, Arnold Bax, Malcolm Rayment, Daniel Jones and Frederick Delius*.

So which programmes or visiting orchestras and artists catch your eye?

Maybe there is something that I've missed.

HS

* In 1956, I played the two Delius Dance Rhapsodies under Sir Thomas Beecham. Fantastic music, but I don't remember ever hearing them played since. How many times have we heard Rachmaninoff's (excellent) "Symphonic Dances" broadcast over those last 50+ years?

Horny, a bit of this thread got hived off (not of my doing) yesterday, onto this

.http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-British-Music

It's relevant to what you have to say, I think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A mixed reaction so far, then.

Well, to add to the "Yes; I am" mix - Yes. I am.

Just to comment on my "highlights", I am excited at the prospect of hearing

Les Siecles performing Le Sacre on the type of instruments used at the premiere.
All the programmes featuring the Music of the dearly missed Witold Lutoslawski (but perhaps most of all, that reuniting him with his ex-compatriate, Andrez Panufnik - one of the rare examples of British Music at this year's season - and played by the WSO under the superb Antoni Wit)
Nott and THe BambergSO playing Mahler's Fifth AND marking the way-overdue Proms debut of the Music of Lachenmann (I so hope they do one of those "Proms Extra" programmes with RCM students play some of his Chamber Music).
Stockhausen's Gesange der Junglinge and Welt-Parlamente - memories of last year's world premiere: fantastic Music.
Handel in Italy
15th & 16th Century Polish Choral Music (yes, I know - but what if it is hackneyed? There must be somebody who hasn't yet heard this wonderful stuff.)
All the Wagner events (the only chance in the UK this year to hear the entire Ring Cycle more-or-less as the composer wanted - on (nearly) consecutive evenings. AND conducted by the greatest living Wagner conductor, too. There won't be a dry eye in the house - which I presume is what Barby meant on the other Thread by "obssessives wetting themselves".
JEGger's Bach Oratorios.
Britten's Canticles, etc (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
The Holst concerts (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
Henze, Stravinsky and Tippett (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season) in Prom 26.
Britten's magnificent Phaedra and Lennox Berkeley's Teresa Songs with Tippett (five of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
Camerata Ireland playing playing Lennox Berkeley and Priaulx Rainier (but, ironically, no Ireland - so much British Music neglected this year, isn't there?
The BBC Singers and the Nash Ensemble with one of the rare programmes of English Music in this year's season - Music from the "Eton Choirbook" (there is no finer Music than this to be found anywhere) intersprersed with Holst and a Birtwistle premiere.
The Tallis Scholars singing Gesualdo and Taverner (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
Paul Lewis playing Schubert.
The "World Routes" Prom with one of the rare examples of Music from Azerbeijan in this year's season.
The Midsummer Marriage and Billy Budd (two of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
The Charlie Parker Prom (no 62 - hope it's better than the feeble effort with the Music of Stan Kenton a couple of years ago).
The "New Generation" concert with Brahms' 1st Piano Quartet and Elizabeth Maconchy's trememndous 3rd String Quartet (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
The London Sinfonietta and the Stranglers appearing in the same concert (12th Aug) has been one of my private fantasies for thirty-five years: an unmissable and rare example of British Music in this year's season.
Feldman's Coptic Light and John White in Prom 50(the latter one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).
The Dowland Prom on 2nd September (one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season).

... and ...

to please my dear fellow Forumite, EdgleyRob, who has enthused so often about it

George Lloyd's Requiem - in the hope that (like the Brian Gothic performance two years ago) it will "convert" me to the cause of a composer I have found nothing to value hithertofore. (And because it's one of the rare examples of British Music in this year's season.)

There's also the Gospel Prom, the Schumann, Mozart, Sibelius Prom, the Zappa Prom and various others that I'm very keen - if not "excited" - to hear.


Oh! And lovers of British Music (so rarely featured this year) will look forward, as I do, to Warlock's The Curlew (that composer's masterpiece, and a work of heart aching beauty) on 19th August, together with Imogen Holst's Phantasy Quartet.


But not much else, really.

[Pianoman]

Prom 31 interests me - Walton, some rare Rubbra, the Bruch G minor (yawn) and one of my favourites, the Korngold Symphony

[Alison]

Good summation Ferney.


I'd like to have seen a sharper profile for the BBCSO and their new chief conductor. And of course I deeply regret the absence of Bernard Haitink concerts this time around.

Both issues may have been outside the control of Roger.