Prom 10: Friday, 22nd July at 7.30 p.m. (French & Spanish music)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Juanjo Mena, the new Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, makes his Proms debut with a glittering and inventive Franco-Spanish programme. Debussy's three evocative Images are interspersed with equally colourful impressions of Spain by Ravel, while Falla supplies the authentic Spanish experience with his haunting depiction of the sights, sounds and scents of Andalusia and the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada.

Debussy: Images - Gigues
Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
Debussy: Images - Rondes de printemps
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso
Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Debussy: Images - Ibéria

Steven Osborne (piano)
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena (conductor)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What a pity they will not be including Ravel's Bolero.

[Tapiola]

Or La Valse (which I truly adore!).

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Looking forward to this - I consider the Phil to be the finest BBC orchestra and neat timing to have them perform the day after their excellent Manchester neighbours, the Hallé. I suppose the controversial aspect of the programme is the splitting up of Debussy's Images. I'm not sure I've ever heard any of the three movements from Images performed separately before, but am not unduly unsettled by it here. Attractive looking programme.

[barber olly]

I suppose the controversial aspect of the programme is the splitting up of Debussy's Images. I'm not sure I've ever heard any of the three movements from Images performed separately before, but am not unduly unsettled by it here. Attractive looking programme.

I find this divisive! But no doubt if Images had been played joined up the audience would choose to divide it by applause in their time-honoured but erroneous fashion!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I find this divisive! But no doubt if Images had been played joined up the audience would choose to divide it by applause in their time-honoured but erroneous fashion!

I don't think this recently emerging practice is exactly "time honoured" - more a tiny proportion of the audience who arrive without their brains in gear.

[Anna]

I will be watching this on BBC4 because, I always seem to have a problem with Debussy so maybe I may not in future and, I actually like Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Alborada del gracioso. Shame about La Valse not being included .......

[BBMmk2]

This chap the BBC PO are going to have as their new conductor, to succeed Gianandrea Noseda, seems already to have a very good rapport with this orchestra?

[barber olly]

This chap the BBC PO are going to have as their new conductor, to succeed Gianandrea Noseda, seems already to have a very good rapport with this orchestra?

Looks good to me, doing a good job with this repertoire - Tortelier territory! Look forward to hearing more.

[barber olly]

I will be watching this on BBC4 because, I always seem to have a problem with Debussy so maybe I may not in future and, I actually like Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Alborada del gracioso. Shame about La Valse not being included .......

Why on earth do you have a probem with Debussy, he's up there in my top 10! I know - personal choice - I have a inexplicable problem with Chopin!

[Ventilhorn]

I will be watching this on BBC4 because, I always seem to have a problem with Debussy so maybe I may not in future and, I actually like Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Alborada del gracioso. Shame about La Valse not being included .......

I really love Ravel's Music. His chamber works, his song cycles, his piano concertos and his orchestral music.

Only two works that I cannot abide:-

Bolero and La Valse. Sorry, Anna but I find them both too repetitive and unutterably boring, so I for one was glad that they were not included in tonight's programme.

The BBC Phil were in fine form and obviously enjoying their future Chief Conductor.

Stephen Osborne was terrific - light and shade in abundance, but listening tonight I was reminded of perhaps the most terrifying experience of my career:-

At the age of twenty, I was engaged to play Assistant Principal (all right, bumper-up to tell the truth) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Maida Vale Studio.

The soloist in the Falla was that delightful pianist Iris Loveridge, who happened to be a friend of the Principal Horn (Douglas Moore)

Douglas called me over just before the rehearsal was about to begin. "I've just been talking to Iris" he said "and she tells me that, as she hasn't played this Falla for a long time, she needs to have the music on the stand just in case, so she needs a page turner. As I don't need you in this work, will you do it?"

Well, I could hardly refuse, could I?
Not being a pianist, I was quite unfamiliar with the complexities of a piano score, where the tune is often hidden among a myriad of notes, so I could only manage by counting off the bars in my head and urgently seeking a nod from Miss Loveridge.
What if I turned two pages by mistake? What if I knocked the whole score off the piano? I was terrified and, to this day, 59 years later, I still shudder at the memory of what I went through that afternoon.

Anyway, back to tonight. A splendid concert. I watched on TV and the programme was only marred by the stupid questions put to the conductor by this young woman called Eli something. For instance: "....How do you get a British orchestra to play Spanish music?"

I wanted the conductor to tell her "...you put the music in front of them and tell them to play what is on the copy."

VH

[Chris Newman]

Looking forward to this - I consider the Phil to be the finest BBC orchestra and neat timing to have them perform the day after their excellent Manchester neighbours, the Hallé. I suppose the controversial aspect of the programme is the splitting up of Debussy's Images. I'm not sure I've ever heard any of the three movements from Images performed separately before, but am not unduly unsettled by it here. Attractive looking programme.

I don't know, IGI, there are precedents of splitting Images. Back in the 60s I bought Toscanini's La Mer and the filler was Iberia on its own. I played it into the ground. It was not till several years later when I bought Previn's famous Debussy disc that I discovered that Claude's Images went to Britain and France as well. What a cracking Iberia we were given tonight!! It looks as if the BBC Phil have struck gold again with Juanjo Mena.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I was home late from work this evening, so missed the Prom. Late night BBC Four repeat duly programmed into the recorder! Initial impressions here seem to have been good.

[Anna]

Juanjo Mena is so cute!! Loved Stephen Osborne, and Iberia was brilliant! Very good Prom.

[Bryn]

Clear uncompressed (dynamically, that is) sound again for Prom 10. However, I managed to miss Gigue though, due to messing around making room on the hard disc/DVD recorder for the BBC4 offering.