Prom 71: The Last Night, BBC SO/BBC SC/BBC Singers, Davidsen/S. Kanneh-Mason/Alsop

[Prommer]

Being Norwegian, the soloist Lise Davidsen must be a bit perplexed at the retro EU flags at the Last Night of the Proms?

[Prommer]

Loving all the EU flags - Lord Frost ,Farage and Boris Johnson will be foaming at the mouth.

I suspect they will be intensely relaxed and even partying like it’s 2016! In other words, it stokes the embers of the debate and will make them feel relevant.

[Prommer]

Who's the 'kipper trombonist with the Union Jack waistcoat?

I am sure he’s a lovely chap and loves his Mum.

[french frank]

I suspect they will be intensely relaxed and even partying like it’s 2016!

Or 2021.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/entertainment-arts-66722746

[Ein Heldenleben]

I thought the TV overage was exceptionally well lit , produced and directed. It was also of a very high musical standard especially the wonderful Lise Davidsen . (My judgement might be coloured by England’s extraordinary performance in the World Cup tonight. )

[parkepr]

I thought the TV overage was exceptionally well lit , produced and directed. It was also of a very high musical standard especially the wonderful Lise Davidsen . (My judgement might be coloured by England’s extraordinary performance in the World Cup tonight. )

I agree.... it's been s while since I last watched tlnop completely (I think it might be Barry Wordsworth from'93) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thought the start to the 2nd half was spectacular!

[mikealdren]

Just watched on TV and I'm wondering why some of the words on the subtitles have been changed from the traditional, even auld lang syne, I know there are different versions but it certainly wasn't what the audience sang.
Is it 'will be slaves' nowadays, I'm sure I learned it as 'shall be' in years gone by but the Internet says 'will be' too?

[ardcarp]

'Shall' was the usual word. I always learned at school that the first person followed by 'shall' with the second and third person followed by 'will' is the non-imperative form. The other way round being imperative. Perhaps the word 'will' is seen as non-imperative and thus less jingoistic.

People who think the singing Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem make Prom-goers ultra- nationalistic are largely mistaken. They just have good tunes! The two Union Jacks either side of the organ were perhaps a poor judgement.

[Prommer]

I think the BBC started putting those flags there to ensure it has a decent shot from that angle in case of EU flag mafia takeover! They are rather large and prominent and deliberately so.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Who's the 'kipper trombonist with the Union Jack waistcoat?

Dan Jenkins, stalwart BBCSO 2nd trombone for as long as I was doing BBCSC concerts and since, has worn a Union Flag waistcoat whenever he has done LNOP. I am not aware that he is a 'kipper and I strongly suspect otherwise.

Never greatly convinced by the LNOP, I became very disenchanted with it when one year a BBC jobsworth told me I could not go on stage with an EU hanky in my top pocket as it was "a political symbol", this after they had stopped putting any flags on stage that weren't UK. I don't envy orchestra or Singers rank-and-filers who don't have the option to miss the gig and have to look happy through all the nonsense. At least Chorus members aren't forced to sign up.

[RichardB]

I suspect they will be intensely relaxed and even partying like it’s 2016! In other words, it stokes the embers of the debate and will make them feel relevant.

There have been complaints. https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...t-of-the-proms

Harvey Proctor: “BBC must investigate how so many EU flags were waved & on display at The Last Night of the Proms. Disgraceful & misguided BBC messing up a British tradition; a political gesture which would make Sir Henry Wood turn in his grave. Utterly vulgar & wrong. Rule Britannia, not Rule EU!”

That would be the same Henry Wood who was responsible for vastly expanding the musical horizons of the London concert scene by introducing English audiences to hundreds of new works from abroad, I presume.



If the LNOTP were actually woke I might watch it!

[Simon Biazeck]

Well, Marin Alsop certainly took her time in the slower passages of Don Juan. Good work from Sheku K-M with Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei. Nice of Petroc to mention biographical information about the Prommer who presented a gift to Sheku on stage. The two 'novelties' were OK, a good contrast of slow and fast, if nothing else. Not greatly enthralled by RP's new version of the Coronation Sanctus, maybe just a bit too bland and stately for my taste. JBW's 1922 gets points for being the far more energetic of the two, even if I heard the musical shade of 1980's-era John Adams more than once in JBW's work.

I wonder if Lise D. delivered her opening spoken words in the Verdi selection unamplified in the hall, as she can obviously blow the roof off the hall on her own, unamplified. Will be nice to hear confirmation from people in the RAH or anyone watching it on TV. She nailed it, to my tin ear, in all of her selections in the first half. Just grasped that the gift presenters to LD and MA seem to have the same last name as the earlier presenter (Enfield?). Overall, a very enjoyable first half.

(Can anyone trace the name of the solo male singer in the Verdi selection? Would like to give credit where credit is due.)

FWIW, one example of cross-promotion on the Continent of the LNOP:

https://www.nporadio4.nl/klassiek/zo...t-of-the-proms

PS: £85K for the Promenaders Musical Charities current total (will be interesting to learn the final total once the dust from the LNOP has settled)

My thoughts exactly!

Downloaded from the iPlayer to watch now on the way into work on the train but the visuals and panel presentation are too irritating. Now, listening only.

Panufnik 'Sanctus' beautifully sung and given its best chance - a glittering tapestry of sound, but it really could be about anything - no hold on the text. (Not the BBCS's fault!). But perhaps that's what she intended. I wasn't taken with it at the Coronation and my mind is unchanged.

[Bert Coules]

I thought the TV overage was exceptionally well lit , produced and directed.

I just checked my Sky recording again: after a lengthy pre-recorded teaser introduction, the BBC1 coverage of the second half started with Alsop already on the podium and the first piece underway. That's astonishingly sloppy.

[french frank]

There have been complaints. https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...t-of-the-proms

I lost the will to finish my reply

[Simon Biazeck]

The baritone soloist was Andrew (Andy) Rupp.