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

[french frank]

The word in the programme was 'will', and always has been, in my thirty or so Last Nights.

'Shall' would suggest some outside protective power, waving a wand and guaranteeing the liberty of the nation. 'Will' means that it is the will (or determination) of the Britons themselves never to allow themselves to be slaves.

[Barbirollians]

I don’t understand Sheku bashing . I thought he played very well throughout . Let’s be honest the pieces he was asked to play are hardly the most dazzling in the cello repertoire but I enjoyed them all . I just don’t get hiring a first rank instrumental soloist and not asking them to play a concerto in the first half . The SaintSaens 1 would have been ideal .

I was very impressed when I bought a secondhand copy of his recording of the Elgar with Rattle . As with the Clein/Handley recording I could have done with another concerto rather than lots of short pieces but how at the age of 20 he had got the work under his fingers was remarkable - and how good to hear a passionate account . No overreaction to du Pre here and dull reserved playing . In the finale Rattle and the LSO sound like Boult on fire .

He played a movement of the Elgar on tv only a couple of years before this recording . A remarkable leap forward from that .

[alywin]

I agree that it was an unusually enjoyable Last Night. I was surprised not to see any Ukrainian flags, though.

And I hope that Marvel paid the BBC well for the product placement :(

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

'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.

Looking at an old Oxford Song Book, the word is definitely “will”.