Prom 30: Saturday 6th August ay 6.30 p.m. (NYO)

[Ariosto]

How do you wind sliders up and down?

I would love to tell you Jane, but I'm sure you might be too young and innocent for such details ...

Oh, you really want to know!!??

Well, they are the things on each mixing desk that are used for inceasing and decreasing the gain on each mic, or set of mics. I'm sure you know this really!!

A good studio manager/engineer finds the right level and generally leaves them alone. Bad ones slide them up and down in a frantic effort to improve the balance. More of this happens during a Prom season than in the rest of the world for a whole year.

[Ariosto]

I read a
newspaper articlesomeyears ago about the parties the LPO got up to when touring abroad. I am surprised they were allowed to print details of someof their 'party games'. We all know they go home after a concert to a cup ofcocoa and an early night, don't they ARIOSTO ?

It's what they put in the cocoa that counts, saly ...

I've witnessed some of the shinanikins (if that's how you spell it) and heard lots of stories too, which I could not repeat on a family show like this. It all starts in youth orchestras and gets worse in other scenarios ...

[BudgieJane]

I would love to tell you Jane, but I'm sure you might be too young and innocent for such details ...

Oh, you really want to know!!??

Well, they are the things on each mixing desk that are used for inceasing and decreasing the gain on each mic, or set of mics. I'm sure you know this really!!

A good studio manager/engineer finds the right level and generally leaves them alone. Bad ones slide them up and down in a frantic effort to improve the balance. More of this happens during a Prom season than in the rest of the world for a whole year.

Yeah, yeah. Sliders move in straight lines; winding means rotating them. Again, how do you wind sliders?

[Ariosto]

Yeah, yeah. Sliders move in straight lines; winding means rotating them. Again, how do you wind sliders?

I think you are winding me up!!

Even if its a slider in a straight line its known as winding them up and down.

If not ferret will straighten it all out (Pun INTENDED ...)

[Mary Chambers]

I read a
newspaper articlesomeyears ago about the parties the LPO got up to when touring abroad. I am surprised they were allowed to print details of someof their 'party games'. We all know they go home after a concert to a cup ofcocoa and an early night, don't they ARIOSTO ?

I've been on tour with orchestras, and they certainly know how to unwind (particularly the brass section!), but I don't think it usually involves rioting and looting Well, perhaps a little bit of minor rioting....

I have sons who were sometimes a little bit wild as undergraduates, and of course Cameron and the Bullingdon Club got up to no good occasionally. It's not quite the same as what happened last week, though. As far as I know they never burned shops down.

[salymap]

Yes Mary I know. These were indoor party games [if the paper got its facts right] but I can go no further on this forum I make no comment on which section of the orchestra was involved. They didn't say sadly.

[Ferretfancy]

When I started, we had desks with big rotary faders that you turned as if driving a tram. These were replaced by quadrant faders which described a curve in space time as it were. Flat sliders came later, and will probably be replaced in due course by tracing a finger up and down a touch screen, or simple voice commands operated on a laptop.
While it's obviously nice if balance engineers can set the levels and leave them alone, I suspect that this is very difficult in the unforgiving acoustic of the RAH. I'm enough of a traditionalist to think that the R3 studio managers of yesteryear had the measure of the hall rather better than their successors who are no longer" in house" BBC Staff.

[bluestateprommer]

Yet another late posting on a Prom: the NYOGB Prom was a very good one. The Gabriel Prokofiev work was OK, nothing stupendous to my ears, admittedly filtered through the iPlayer, but I suppose for the full effect, one has to be in the hall to feel the "vibe" of the turntable work. I would agree with Chris Newman's assessment, however, that this makes a good work for youth orchestras; I can sort of imagine them tapping their feet or bopping in their seats. I'm a big fan of Britten's piano concerto, from recordings, and despair of ever hearing it live, so it was terrific to hear Benjamin Grosvenor take on the work, and do very well with it. Fine, fine work also in the R&J extended suite, although I admit that it's hard for me to hear the work without having the sound of Maazel's Cleveland Orchestra recording in the back of my head.

BTW, for Ariosto, the correct spelling is 'shenanigans' :) .

[Ariosto]

BTW, for Ariosto, the correct spelling is 'shenanigans' :) .

Thanks B-s-p and I'm afraid spelling is generally guesswork for me as I'm an uneducated itinerant musician!

Yes, the R & J is a particularly personal piece for me as I 've performed it a few times and have heard some wonderful performances, and in particular the Clevaland, and the Philadelphia, if I remember correctly.

P.S. I like your posts and hearing it all from a different perspective.

[Ariosto]

When I started, we had desks with big rotary faders that you turned as if driving a tram. These were replaced by quadrant faders which described a curve in space time as it were. Flat sliders came later, and will probably be replaced in due course by tracing a finger up and down a touch screen, or simple voice commands operated on a laptop.
While it's obviously nice if balance engineers can set the levels and leave them alone, I suspect that this is very difficult in the unforgiving acoustic of the RAH. I'm enough of a traditionalist to think that the R3 studio managers of yesteryear had the measure of the hall rather better than their successors who are no longer" in house" BBC Staff.

Thanks for that clarification Ferret, and for straightening it all out!! I think I was being wound up ...

[Bryn]

I think you are winding me up!!

Even if its a slider in a straight line its known as winding them up and down.

Possibly a throw-back to wire-wound rheostats?

http://www.tech-faq.com/rheostat.html

[Norfolk Born]

Benjamin Grosvenor's appearance at the First Night is available (again) on the iPlayer until the 21st. No less impressive than that with the NYO (IMHO).

[Boilk]

Terrible scratching about on the decks and such poor orchestration in my view. I hope the BBC didn’t waste money on commissioning this work. Apart from being the grandson of the great Sergei Prokofiev I am wondering what Gabriel Prokofiev has done to deserve having a Proms performance of his works.

It was definitely not a BBC commission. As for "meriting" a performance at the Proms, Roger Wright would probably say that the Proms likes to take risks and "push the envelope". And the name "Gabriel Prokofiev" was surely going to garner curiosity anyway wasn't it?

[Ariosto]

Possibly a throw-back to wire-wound rheostats?

http://www.tech-faq.com/rheostat.html

That could well be the reason. I remember my electric train set had one of those and you could overheat it and get a nasty smell. (A bit like a hot conductor)*

* Electrical conductor, of course ...

[Elion]

Benjamin Grosvenor's appearance at the First Night is available (again) on the iPlayer until the 21st. No less impressive than that with the NYO (IMHO).

Here's a download link I found on another group for a selection of Benjamin Grosvenor live performances in early 2010, when he was 17. Some incredible playing here - perhaps most of all the Ravel Gaspard and Chopin 3rd Scherzo. This is in Apple Lossless format, zipped, so note that you'd need iTunes or another media player capable of playing Apple Lossless (ALAC) format recordings to play the material. And evidently some of these recordings are of 'unofficial' type.

Elion

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1195891887/17d10f223665a76acf057a42cdbcbfaf

Benjamin Grosvenor (age 17)

In recital on tour – USA, Japan, Germany, England: January-March 2010

Nikolai Kapustin (b.1937) – from Eight Concert Etudes Op. 40¹:
1 No.6 Pastoral Allegro moderato
2 No.7 Intermezzo Allegretto
3 No.3 Toccatina Allegro

4-8 Liszt – Sonata in B minor²

9 Chopin – Nocturne in C sharp minor Op. posth.³
10 Chopin – Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor Op. 394

Ravel – Gaspard de la nuit²:
11 1. Ondine
12 2. Le gibet
13 3. Scarbo

encore:
14 Chopin arr. Liszt – Chant polonais No.5 Meine Freuden³

bonus track:
15 Le gibet (Ravel – Gaspard de la nuit)¹

¹ Janet Wallace Fine Arts Centre, St Paul, Minnesota 28 Feb 2010
² Schloss Dachau, Germany 13 Mar 2010
³ Philia Hall, Yokohama, Japan 26 Jan 2010
4 Wigmore Hall, London 15 Feb 2010