Prom 73: The Last Night, BBC SO / BBC SC / BBC Singers, Blue / Hough / Oramo

[bluestateprommer]

Saturday 14 September 2024
19:00
Royal Albert Hall

The Last Night of the 2024 Proms


Walton: Portsmouth Point Overture

Puccini:
(a) Gianni Schicchi – ‘O mio babbino caro’
(b) Madama Butterfly – 'Humming Chorus'
(c) Tosca – ‘Vissi d’arte’

Carlos Simon: Hellfighters' Blues (BBC co-commission: world premiere)

Fauré: Pavane, op. 50

Ives: The Yale-Princeton Football Game

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: 'Summer Is Gone' (first performance at The Proms)

Grace Williams: Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (first performance at The Proms)

Saint‐Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, op. 103 (‘Egyptian’) - II. Andante

[Encore: The Sherman Brothers (arr. Stephen Hough): 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' (first performance at The Proms)]


Interval


Iain Farrington: Extra Time (BBC commission: world premiere)

Henry Mancini (arr. Gavin Sutherland): 'The Pink Panther'

Sir Stephen Hough: In His Hands: Two Spirituals (first performance at The Proms)

Ruperto Chapí: Las hijas del Zebedeo – ‘Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores’ (Carceleras)

Traditional (arr. Sir Henry Wood): Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Thomas Arne (arr. Sargent): "Rule, Britannia!"

Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (‘Land of Hope and Glory’), op. 39, no. 1

Parry (orch. Elgar): Jerusalem

The National Anthem (arr. Britten)

'Auld Lang Syne' (arr. P. Campbell)


Angel Blue, soprano (Proms debut artist)
Sir Stephen Hough, piano

BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022t1j

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-73/

Part 1 (on BBC TWO):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00232xz

Part 2 (on BBC ONE):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00232fd

[Pulcinella]

Times interview with Angel Blue.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/fc7ec897-be34-468e-8ab1-a08099879dcc?shareToken=f3ccaaab507369c5c6160ab084780a41

[LMcD]

Times interview with Angel Blue.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/fc7ec897-be34-468e-8ab1-a08099879dcc?shareToken=f3ccaaab507369c5c6160ab084 780a41

When - if ever - has a Last Night previously featured one movement of a concerto?
I've forgotten how long it's been since I last watched what has in recent days been promoted as 'the world's greatest classical music party'

[Darkbloom]

When - if ever - has a Last Night previously featured one movement of a concerto?
I've forgotten how long it's been since I last watched what has in recent days been promoted as 'the world's greatest classical music party'

It's even bittier than usual. Oramo is going to be exhausted with the number of times he has to walk on and off stage. I never watch the last night anyway. I hope those who do have a good time, but the season ended yesterday for me. And a enjoyable one it was.

[oddoneout]

When - if ever - has a Last Night previously featured one movement of a concerto?
I've forgotten how long it's been since I last watched what has in recent days been promoted as 'the world's greatest classical music party'

The transition from celebration concert to party has worked for some no doubt but I can't be doing with it. I would rather that the full fat party aspect was reserved for the Proms in the park events, (which I think are well worth doing) and the RAH event went back to being about music, albeit with a twinkle in the eye and a bit of fun as well. I don't think I'll bother tuning in for the first half (which is what I've done for several years now,not least as the whole thing just goes on too long these days) as there isn't even a main course (concerto) among the hors d'oeuvres.

[Master Jacques]

One bright spot: this is the first time a zarzuela romanza (aria) has been sung at the Last Night. Chapí's famous and spectacular 'Carceleras' is one of Angel Blue's specialities: she includes a lot of zarzuela solo showpieces in her repertoire, and does them well.

[Ein Heldenleben]

From the comments so far ( MJ excepted) you’d think the BBC had deliberately concocted this programme to annoy people when all they are trying to do is entice a mass audience to an art form that’s pretty much ( in this country ) stagnating / long- term dying through lack of public support.

3.5 million watched the Last Night last year - a figure equivalent to about 83 %of all the people who go to a classical music concert in the UK in a year . I’ll be watching though frankly giving Sir SH one movement of a concerto is a bit of an insult to a great musician, I hope he at least gets the full fee!

On the “worlds greatest classical music party “ I would have thought in terms of numbers some of those Andre Rieu stadium concerts must be bigger ….

[LMcD]

From the comments so far ( MJ excepted) you’d think the BBC had deliberately concocted this programme to annoy people when all they are trying to do is entice a mass audience to an art form that’s pretty much ( in this country ) stagnating / long- term dying through lack of public support.

3.5 million watched the Last Night last year - a figure equivalent to about 83 %of all the people who go to a classical music concert in the UK in a year . I’ll be watching though frankly giving Sir SH one movement of a concerto is a bit of an insult to a great musician, I hope he at least gets the full fee!

On the “worlds greatest classical music party “ I would have thought in terms of numbers some of those Andre Rieu stadium concerts must be bigger ….

There's quite often an Andre Rieu concert on the TV when I visit the care home. The response from the otherwise normally listless residents sitting in the lounge is good to see - toe-tapping, conducting and singing along. On the screen, the enjoyment of the audience, who seem to come from every age group from the 20s to the 80s, is palpable.
The VPO's Summer Night Concert from Schoenbrunn always attracts a very large audience, as do concerts at the Waldbuehne.

[Ein Heldenleben]

There's quite often an Andre Rieu concert on the TV when I visit the care home. The response from the otherwise normally listless residents sitting in the lounge is good to see - toe-tapping, conducting and singing along. On the screen, the enjoyment of the audience, who seem to come from every age group from the 20s to the 80s, is palpable.
The VPO's Summer Night Concert from Schoenbrunn always attracts a very large audience, as do concerts at the Waldbuehne.

Music is so important in care homes isn’t it ? A real connection with the past, and current emotional release. I once filmed at a residential h9me and they had a tea dance there - it completely an8mated the place . It was run by Devon County Council .It even had a cocktail cabinet - sold off for housing years ago.

People can look down their noses at AR but he does what he does well and he sells tickets in numbers most classical musos can only dream of. His live streams at our local Cineworld cinema are usually shown at the largest screens simultaneously. Not sure about those frocks or the mullet though .

[Petrushka]

Once again, the heart sinks as we come to the Last Night. Not just because of the bitty fare on offer but because it is the traditional end of summer, regardless of the fact that it seems to have ended a few days ago.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Once again, the heart sinks as we come to the Last Night. Not just because of the bitty fare on offer but because it is the traditional end of summer, regardless of the fact that it seems to have ended a few days ago.

One house rule - no switching on the central heating till after the Last Night . It was so cold Thursday night I had to for precisely one hour.

[LMcD]

One house rule - no switching on the central heating till after the Last Night . It was so cold Thursday night I had to for precisely one hour.

Much to my annoyance, I had to switch on the gas fire in the lounge twice this week, albeit for only an hour or so in total. The central heating will stay off for as long as possible.

[Petrushka]

One house rule - no switching on the central heating till after the Last Night . It was so cold Thursday night I had to for precisely one hour.

I'm afraid I capitulated on Thursday, too!

[Darkbloom]

Once again, the heart sinks as we come to the Last Night. Not just because of the bitty fare on offer but because it is the traditional end of summer, regardless of the fact that it seems to have ended a few days ago.

It's almost as though someone flicks a switch. One day you're still trying to pretend it's summer, the next you're definitely in autumn. I couldn't believe how cold it was walking home last night. I almost needed a coat.

[Ein Heldenleben]

It's almost as though someone flicks a switch. One day you're still trying to pretend it's summer, the next you're definitely in autumn. I couldn't believe how cold it was walking home last night. I almost needed a coat.

northerly winds thankfully now changing to southerly - it’ll get warmer so I can delay staring at the smart meter a few more weeks.