Old Concert Programmes

[parkepr]

Hello All,
I recently found some old concert programmes that my Dad had... thought I'd post some shots of one of them on here... this one is of Andre Previn and LSO at the RFH in Frb 1967... photos can be viewed here...

https://plus.google.com/111405792016210293682/posts/Menwi3mYaiP

Anyone else remember these days of the LSO (or even remembered attending the concert)?

Also does anyone else have some shots of old concert programmes they'd like to share?

Pete

[Richard Tarleton]

As it's his 80th birthday....I sat in the middle of the front row! (Can you size images in Imgur, this is a bit big?) I used to have stacks of RFH programmes - LPO - WD and HO Wills. LSO - Peter Stuyvesant

[Keraulophone]

Just seen on Twitter under the heading 'Annals of baffling programming', what Mitropoulos chose to pair with the US premiere of Mahler 6.
Presumably he was trying to cheer up his audience after they'd been violently been turned marrowy (!) before the interval.



On second thoughts, they probably needed the Gershwin to sell the obscure (in US) Mahler. A late night, having started at 8.45pm.

[Bryn]

Just seen on Twitter under the heading 'Annals of baffling programming', what Mitropoulos chose to pair with the US premiere of Mahler 6.
Presumably he was trying to cheer up his audience after they'd been violently been turned marrowy (!) before the interval.

Sorry, I fail to find anything baffling in the programming of the two works in the same concert, though maybe their positioning might have been reversed.

[Keraulophone]

though maybe their positioning might have been reversed.

They may have been trying to preserve the audience through the Mahler to reach the popular Gershwin later. Apparently it got too late for the Herald Tribune critic who left 'after a few measures' of the concerto to file his copy.
.

[Petrushka]

Just seen on Twitter under the heading 'Annals of baffling programming', what Mitropoulos chose to pair with the US premiere of Mahler 6.
Presumably he was trying to cheer up his audience after they'd been violently been turned marrowy (!) before the interval.



On second thoughts, they probably needed the Gershwin to sell the obscure (in US) Mahler. A late night, having started at 8.45pm.

To us this looks like bizarre programming but a search of the NYPO archive will yield many more. Much the same is true of very many concerts in the Proms Archive as well as in the Vienna PO Archive. The sort of concert programming we are more familiar with is much more recent than you might think with even some of the 1960s Proms looking decidedly odd to our eyes.

[Lordgeous]

Hello All,
I recently found some old concert programmes that my Dad had... thought I'd post some shots of one of them on here... this one is of Andre Previn and LSO at the RFH in Frb 1967... photos can be viewed here...

https://plus.google.com/111405792016210293682/posts/Menwi3mYaiP

Anyone else remember these days of the LSO (or even remembered attending the concert)?

Also does anyone else have some shots of old concert programmes they'd like to share?

Pete

Gosh, boxfulls of them. Some highlights, Stravinsky, Britten etc. I'll try and scan some. Meanwhile some of you may be interested to see a selection of George Malcolm's on his website: https://www.georgemalcolm.xcellent-s...concerts1.html

[gurnemanz]

I always buy and keep programmes, music and theatre. I had one large and random boxfull kept in the loft. One of the things I have done since retiring is to sort them out. I put them by year in a filing cabinet freed up when emptied of old stuff from my teaching activity.
I don't keep a diary and am finding it useful and diverting to go back and be reminded.There must be a few now forgotten performances whose programmes I either never had or have lost. I definitely went to the famous Peter Brook Midsummer Night's Dream but annoyingly found no programme when I checked recently.

[gradus]

I haven't always bought programmes but I collected a fair few in the early sixties when I started concert/opera-going, the habit fell away later. More often than not I remember little or nothing of the performances with the notable exceptions of Monteux/LSO, Klemperer/Philharmonia and Solti/ROH and my surprise at the fallibility of Kempff as a concert pianist even though I often enjoy his recordings.

[Petrushka]

I've got hundreds of concert programmes, several of them signed, all boxed up and stored upstairs. In fact, I've got the programmes for every single concert I've been to since May 1972 apart from three: two I accidentally left behind in the hall and another that fell victim to a printer's strike so there were none.

I'll never part with them and the signed ones are very special to me. All of them bring back fantastic memories of some great evenings.

[LHC]

The resurrection of this thread is quite timely, as I have recently discovered that the Barbican is no longer providing programmes for its classical concerts. They are providing online digital programmes, and if you are lucky they might remember to send the link to the ticket holder by email before the concert (although in some cases this will only be an hour or so before the concert starts)

The excuses given for this are "Covid" (even though leaflets advertising the month's events are still freely available around the hall), and that digital programmes are more eco-friendly, although the main reason is almost certainly to reduce costs.

I believe this is a retrograde step, and not simply because it means I and many others won't be able to add these concerts to our collection of concert programmes. However, for song recitals, it really is a terrible choice, as the audience will no longer be able easily to remind themselves which song is coming next, or follow the song text and translation during the performance. Indeed, at a recent recital by Jonas Kaufmann and Diana Damrau, Kaufmann addressed the audience before the concert and apologised for the lack of a programme, explaining that this was not his or Damrau's choice, and said that they realised the situation was unsatisfactory.

It also suggests that the Barbican are now quite happy to have many of their audience members opening up their phones and tablets during performances so they can refer to the programme on their glowing screens.

I should add that this appears to only cover the concerts put on by the Barbican themselves; programmes are still happily available at LSO concerts.

[gurnemanz]

I heartily agree with LHC above re Barbican programmes. They were useful, functional and mostly free of charge. We were certainly glad to have the song texts for Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch with Damrau and Kaufmann in 2018.
In general, I thought programmes, especially the excessively glossy type with adverts, were actually a source of profit.