Prom 26: Wednesday 3rd August at 7.30 p.m. (French music)

[jayne lee wilson]

Wait a minute, HDs OK again off the R3 webpage as Harrell plays his encore...
Well that was a quick fix...

[BBMmk2]

I love the Duttileaux. I have all his orchestral music on the Chandos set. Strongly recomended.

[Bryn]

Not that quick, Jayne. My complaint went in 11:46 this morning, followed by three related responses to a message by Rupert Brun (the man in charge) on an R&D blog. Mysteriously, not only my messages there, but that by Rupert Brun and the one he responded to seem have disappeared without comment. According to my profile re. BBC blogs, I have never posted a comment!

[pilamenon]

Not the most ravishing, ecstatic Bolero I've ever heard. Sounded ever so slightly sour and perfunctory.

[Petrushka]

Not the most ravishing, ecstatic Bolero I've ever heard. Sounded ever so slightly sour and perfunctory.

Yes, that was my impression too.

[jayne lee wilson]

Familiar feelings, Bryn... last November I discovered that the 320kbps stream was running "experimentally" before the official December launch & I asked R3 a few questions about it and they "asked" me not to tell anyone it was running! Since I'd found out via the old messageboards this was somewhat amusing. Mind you there was an R3 info page at that time that said the HDs would run at "a sampling rate of 320kbps"...

[Bryn]

Heh, heh. Yes I recall challenging that one at the time.

[Ventilhorn]

Not the most ravishing, ecstatic Bolero I've ever heard. Sounded ever so slightly sour and perfunctory.

My pet hate. Why such a fuss is made about this boring and repetitive piece, I cannot understand.

The Gallic dominance of music so far this season is a mystery to me. At least, so far we have been spared the insipid harmonies of Cesar Franck and the ludicrous multi-verse arrangement of La Marsellaise by Hector Berlioz.

No wonder Arioso changed his ID!

VH

[pilamenon]

My pet hate. Why such a fuss is made about this boring and repetitive piece, I cannot understand.

To call this piece "boring and repetitive" is surely to miss the point entirely. If heard no more than once or twice a year, it has a unique quality and rapture that few other pieces get close to. It is also one of the best ways to admire and assess the various wind sounds and colours in an orchestra. Because I only choose to hear it infrequently, I was disappointed that the BBCSSO gave us a slightly lame reading.

And of course if heard every fortnight in the morning on Radio 3, I can well understand some listeners being driven crazy.

[Ferretfancy]

Last night's Prom was indeed promoted by the Beeb as a family occasion, and the pre-Prom event at the RCM was intended to introduce the music, with a group of children on stage to bring their instruments to help the audience to do so. This involved 'constructing' the first section of the Dutilleux with the help of three musicians from the orchestra.
It was all entertainingly done, and later I noticed quite a few very attentive children in the Arena, so I hope it paid off.

It was an enjoyable Prom which perhaps fell short of the very best. Lynn Harrell was great, as ever in the Dutilleux, maybe some of the pianissimos in the orchestra disappeared into the RAH's vast spaces.
Daphnis was very good, but why such a large chorus ? This destroyed the mystery a bit for me, a little more distance would have helped. All in all though a good evening, and surprisingly the Arena was quite comfortable in spite of the mini heatwave, well it's over this morning !

[Simon B]

Daphnis was very good, but why such a large chorus ? This destroyed the mystery a bit for me, a little more distance would have helped.

I'm trying not to be contrary this season... But not really succeeding. The size and power of the chorus was one of the most enjoyable aspects of this Daphnis et Chloe for me. Some real edge and welly for once rather than somewhat insipid ooh-ing and ahh-ing. I particularly enjoyed the characteristically clipped and proper Edinburgh pronunciation of ooh and aah too .

All that was needed for a truly dionysiac danse generale at the end was for some (only some mind, others e.g. cymbals and tambourine were excellent) of the percussion to, well, stop being so subtle and hit the damn things much harder. Still very good though.

Oh, and once more I wish that someone at the RAH (I'll happilly operate the button, except I'll probably wear it out) to be in charge of a laser display that says "Stop Coughing!", "Now!", and "For *^$%'s Sake SHUT UP!". Or institute a system whereby the sound of "cough, cough, snort, cough, Cough, COUGH, etc" actually goes "cough, cough, snort, cough, Cough, COUGH, BANG!, silence...".

[gedsmk]

The audience behaviour was dreadful. I have been to lots of proms over the years but this was just silly. We started badly when someone dropped what sounded like a beer bottle during the flute solo at the start of "Prelude". After that why bother? I wish Runnicles had stopped it (as Rattle did for "Rite of Spring" a couple of years ago). And the amount of out-loud coughing was ridiculous.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and the soloists in the orchestra were superb. Runnicles has clearly done a lot to encouraging careful balance and phrasing, and this came through especially in Daphnis. Quite gorgeous!

[NickWraight]

I would agree the audience noises were significant last night. However, apart from the one or two TB sufferers one Prom colleague mentioned a valid point. Much of the concert was composed of hushed tones and given the size of the place, as well as being sold out and a Family Event (slightly bizarre given the programme), many audience members would have endured sections of almost silence and thus boredom does ensue I'm afraid to say. A programme of French music always used to be the Kiss of Death and usually resulted in low attendance not so last night - for whatever reason!

There is almost always significant noises off at the start of each half of a Prom (bottles falling over; glasses clinking; general settling down and the like) but it did go on for much of the Daphnis and Chloe. Gallic music is, in general, all about colour and charm as opposed to structure and form and thus there is less to keep hold of one's attention and hence an audience's apparent disinterest.

The Bolero I thought was super, slightly under stated with one tempo throughout and one long crescendo. One maestro of an egotistical persuasion once ruined a Prom perfomnce many years back with an American band by applying the brake before the coda which totally confused the players with the expected damp squib result.

[Ferretfancy]

I absolutely agree about the horrifying amount of coughing, with no attempt being made by people to suppress their sea lion barking. The worst this season so far, almost all of it emanating from the stalls --- why do they come if they can't concentrate?

[Chris Newman]

I am convinced that have heard the same female cougher on the radio and at live concerts. Murder crosses my mind.