Prom 18: Lata Mangeshkar: Bollywood Legend - 28 July 2023

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Friday 28 July 2023 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Palak Muchhal singer
Palash Muchhal singer
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Michael Seal conductor

[FFAdminMKS]

The legendary Bollywood playback singer died last year, aged 92. Tonight, her legacy is celebrated by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Together, they mark the immense career and catalogue of an extraordinary, era-defining artist.

On TV: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e2mcd4

[bluestateprommer]

More belated catch-up Proms listening, where it seems as though I might be a party of one on this Prom, so to speak (nothing new there, to be sure). I listened to this Prom in total ignorance of Bollywood cinema and its related music, not to mention Hindi, so that I obviously didn't understand a single word of any of the songs. So I guess that this was more of a purely sonic experience than anything, again to state something obvious. From what I could tell, the musicianship was solid, and Palak Muchhal did a good job delivering the songs. It didn't seem that the music itself required large, souped-up Western-style orchestrations, or that the latter really "added" anything to the music as such. But the crowd was clearly enthusiastic.

And for those who go on about over-gushiness from some of the R3 presenters, they have nothing on Haroon Rashid, the co-presenter from the BBC Asian Network alongside R3's Sarah Walker. HR's gush about the concert makes everyone else at R3 seem quite calm, even if his enthusiasm seemed quite genuine and not "an act".