Today's the day... What do we think of Proms season 2011?

[Andrew Slater]

Now, that's very good news. When you're ready I'll put the link in the sidebar.

Our calendar format isn't best suited to what I wanted which was a comprehensive and informative display in a small space.

I've finished populating it. It's a bit basic, but all the info is on one (LARGE!) page. I hope it complements your calendar: browse the calendar in one browser tab and search for the date in the other, perhaps.

[french frank]

Excellent.

Btw, has anyone noticed? The first half of the First Night is Weir Brahms and Liszt. Is that someone's idea of a joke?

[Eudaimonia]

Er, I'm not getting it...if you imagine how these pieces might sound together, I'm sure it's going to be quite thrilling. (With a title like Stars, Night, Music and Light, how dull can it be?) In fact, just thinking about it gave me a little fluttery feeling in the pit of my stomach and a catch in my throat, so there.

[french frank]

Er, I'm not getting it...

It's cockney rhyming slang. Surely you've spent long enough in Lahnd'n to have come across that ...

[Petrushka]

Er, I'm not getting it...

Euda: In Cockney rhyming slang 'Brahms and Liszt' = p****d.

[Eudaimonia]

[Petrushka]

Well done, FF, for pipping me at the post! It only happened because I messed up the quote and had to start again.

[french frank]

Plus the 'We're' at the beginning. That explains all the jollity at Radio 3 these days

[Roehre]

Returning to the original question: What do I think of the Proms?

repertoire: even more disappointingly uninmaginative than the last couple of years
the "alternative" takes: for me completely unattractive, possibly a waste of money anyway
impressed by: including Brian's Gothic.

Not many dates for my agenda then.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There are many good concerts to be heard, but I agree with Roehre about the overall lack of imagination.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I am afraid I am going to earn the enmity of many posters here. I think you all listen to far too much classical music. You are bored with it. Brahms, Beethoven - pah. Britten, Shostakovich, Mahler - pish. Why can't the BBC be exciting? Oh, they would have to put on unknown and contemporary composers. Can't have that either - too revolutionary.

But there will always be young enthusiasts tuning in who will be having their first, exciting experience of music they do not know or have only heard in gobbets by some fortunate accident. Brahms 3 and 4 by Haitink (for example) will be thrilling for them though unimaginative for some of us.

I sometimes think it might be best for music in this country if the BBC decided to restrict broadcasting the Proms to carefully-chosen highlights once a week. That would make us all grow more appreciative.

As might the restriction of classical music on Radio 3 to two hours a day.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Emnity could indeed be a side-effect, but in truth, A-P, you make a very good point. We are spoilt in many ways, and sometimes, we spit out our dummies when we don't get exactly what we want.

Anyway, since this is my 1,999th posting and I don't want to be the first to 2,000, I'm going to sit back for a day or two. /:cool2:

[Suffolkcoastal]

If you continue to largely recycle the same small repertoire for 'young' and new 'enthusiasts, where is the opportunity for them to progress? Wasn't education and progression Wood's aim? With the concert repertoire so restricted in this country the Proms should offer more of an opportunity to mix the familiar with the unfamiliar. If it wasn't for recorded music, with the opportunity of exploring composers and works regularly that I really connect with, then I think I would have turned away from classical music several years ago. I would love to attend several proms concerts in a season, I've actually never been, but at present there just isn't enough to make me part with my cash. I would also love to hear 100's of my favourite works 'live' but have to accept than in 90-95% of cases, I will never have that opportunity. As I pointed out in another thread, if you endlessly concentrate on you 'beginners' what is there for your more experienced listeners, don't they have a right to be catered for sometimes too???

[Threni]

But don't most people like the common repertoire ;-) I haven't it all yet! I looked in my concert diary today I haven't even heard all of Beethoven's symphonies live!!! Or all the piano concertos I'm missing no.5 for some odd reason!

I'm looking forward to hearing some Liszt and Bartok along with the Brahms stuff.

[BBMmk2]

That is the whole point of the Proms? There is room in this marvellous festival to have the 'great unknowns' of the past and the present, with the usual fayre.