Proms at Great Yarmouth: BBC CO, Helsing, Friday 8 September 2023

[bluestateprommer]

Friday 8 September 2023
18:00
Hippodrome, Great Yarmouth
Hippodrome Circus
St. Georges Road
Great Yarmouth
Norfolk
NR30 2EU

Vaughan Williams: The Wasps - 'Overture'

Eric Coates: Dancing Nights (first performance at The Proms)

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Sarah Rodgers: Seascapes (BBC commission: world premiere)

Walton: Coronation March 'Crown Imperial'

Stravinsky: Circus Polka

Richard Rodgers (arr. Don Walker): Carousel – 'The Carousel Waltz'


interval


Andrea Tarrodi: Festive Overture (first performance at The Proms)

Jimmy López Bellido: Fiesta! (first performance at The Proms)

Khachaturian: Suite from Masquerade


Nathaniel Anderson-Frank, violin
BBC Concert Orchestra
Anna-Maria Helsing, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ed2z3d

https://hippodromecircus.com/bbcorchestralive

[bluestateprommer]

Evidently minimal interest from Forumites in this "Proms at...." concert, which is perhaps understandable, as the program seems much more in the "Classical for starters" vein rather than something for the old hands. In that context, this was an OK concert, maybe not "essential" listening, but all right for what it was. I've only read one book on Proms history, but my sense is that this type of program would readily have fit the ethos of Sir Henry Wood in the earlier days of The Proms, in collecting a selection of shorter works on a single concert, not least with seven works in the first part alone. The novelty of the concert, Seascapes by Sarah Rodgers, could easily have dated from the time of Sir Henry Wood, in its very audience-friendly and "retro" language. To my own ear, her work didn't feel very "sea-scapy", with nothing of Frank Bridge, Britten, or Debussy about it. It felt a bit more like a stately sea-side promenade bordering on a march, rather than evoking the flow and fluidity of water. (SR gave a reading of a portion of John Masefield's "Sea Fever" by way of preface.)

Per Ian Skelly's comments, Nathaniel Anderson-Frank was placed among the orchestra, rather than in front, for RVW's The Lark Ascending. Another surprise was the distended Handel quote in Andrea Tarrodi's Festive Overture. I also wondered how the BBC would deal with the time clash of this Prom with the RLPO Prom on the same evening, a problem simply solved by airing the first half of the Great Yarmouth Prom live, and recording the second half to be aired after the RLPO Prom on the same night. I actually mistimed things that day, so that I heard the 2nd half of the Great Yarmouth Prom first, right after the RLPO Prom, and then went back soon after to listen to its 1st half.

[DracoM]

.....................or not many R3 listeners / Forum readers in Gt Yarm??

[Alison]

Thanks for the reminder BSP. It was a big surprise to learn of a Prom taking place in Great Yarmouth… I’m travelling there on Thursday for the races so would be very fitting to listen en route!