Chichester Psalms on LNotP

[Triforium]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqUpMvMEBRw

P'slams' indeed.

[David Underdown]

The change was made by the Tuesday, on Monday morning it was notified to those who co-ordinate the presentations on behalf of prommers on the last night that it wouldn't be a treble, and it was confirmed as Iestyn Davies later that day (he would of course have been rehearsing for the late night concert). As a result he got a different present to all the other principals, an engraved pen, rather than a paperweight.

From the front row of the Arena it was certainly a glorious performance, Alsop seems a very sympathetic conductor to choruses, which was also evident in her earlier Prom of the Brahms requiem. She was mouting the words throughout in each case.

[Mary Chambers]

Ah. The reason they couldn't have a boy treble was apparently that the performance was filmed live. The Temple boys weren't filmed, so their performance was allowed. How very odd.

[DracoM]

Don't get it, Mary: why would filming make any difference?

[Mary Chambers]

Don't get it, Mary: why would filming make any difference?

I don't get it either, but in an article by Alex Stevens in Classical Music magazine it is blamed on 'the relevant local authorities'. The chorus master Stephen Jackson is quoted, which made it sound authentic to me.

[DracoM]

With you on bafflement, Mary.

Wouldn't it be the DoM of the Temple Choir to give permission, or better still, the soloist's parents?? Can a local authority countermand parental wishes?
Obviously caught the BBC out totally - and for the Last Night of the Proms too, not some minor occasion! How very weird. Wonder if Iestyn Davies has recovered from the fright yet?

[ardcarp]

Is this the same mind-set that prevents parents from videoing their kids' Nativity plays? If so, God help us.

[Wolsey]

The story I was told is that the original plan was for the soloist to be a boy treble. Auditions identified several ideal candidates but the BBC allegedly decreed they were too young to perform at that time of the evening and the switch to a counter-tenor was made at a late stage. This explains the lack of credit for Iestyn Davies in the printed Proms guide.

Not really a 'BBC decree' at all but the law (Children (Performances) Regulations 1968), and the apparent inconsistency in its enforcement by different LEAs. The story was carried by the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph yesterday. Specifically, a section of the Regulations bans children under 13 taking part in a broadcast after 7pm. Children can perform after 7pm, but not on television.

[David Underdown]

You can see the regs in all their gory detail at Children (Performances) Regulations 1968.

[mopsus]

It's in this weeks 'Music and Musicians' column in Private Eye too. Not the first time I've read about something on this board before the Eye picked up on it!

[Thomas Kelway]

I heard a story that Bernstein never got paid...

One story is that Hussey was seeing Bernstein onto the train at Chichester Station, as it was leaving Bernstein leaned out of the window and asked about his payment to which Hussey replied " we'll be in touch".

Apparently they never were!

[DracoM]

It's why eg in UK, the Three Boys in Magic Fluteif sung by 'real' boys, can often be absent from the curtain call.