Prom 64: Friday 2nd September at 10.00 p.m. 'Audience Choice'...? Hmm.

[Prommer]

What does this mean and how will this work? It is the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer who will have been playing Mahler 1 earlier. I am not going to this first prom so will I be denied a vote when I turn up to the arena??

They have an hour to fill, so another symphony (unlikely!) or lollipops? Have they or any other orchestra ever done this before? Intriguing!

What would YOU request, either from this band or just given the the opportunity and the late night slot? Answers on this postboard please...

[Ferretfancy]

According to yesterday's Observer, those who have booked seats will be given raffle tickets and a list of pieces to choose from. Tickets will be placed in the mouth of a tuba, and drawn, and the lucky winners will announce their choices. Prommers will not be left out, because small woolly teddy bears will be thrown into the Arena to be caught by be caught by the more athletic among us.

So you see, asking for Turangalila is not an option !

I'm really not making this up!

Ferret

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I once did this for a piano recital, but I admit to fiddling the results.

[Petrushka]

This concert has been trailed in the 'More Proms to Enjoy' section of the Proms programmes for a while now which seems to imply that ticket sales are slow. One wonders why an orchestra of the calibre of the BFO is indulging in this particular caper but perhaps they do this all the time at home in Budapest. In the 1 hour allotted there will probably time for no more than 4 or 5 shortish works anyway. Does anyone know what pieces are up for grabs?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One wonders why an orchestra of the calibre of the BFO is indulging in this particular caper but perhaps they do this all the time at home in Budapest.

Or could it be that they have not been able to persuade any self-respecting British orchestra to fool about in this way?

[Mahlerei]

I may have dreamed this, but didn't Fischer and the BFO introduce a tree into their performance of the Pastoral at the RFH recently?

[salymap]

Small woolly teddy bears will be thrown into the prom arena. Good grief, Sir Adrian and MS must be spinning in their graves. What next???

[Ferretfancy]

I may have dreamed this, but didn't Fischer and the BFO introduce a tree into their performance of the Pastoral at the RFH recently?

Yes, a very small tree with a thin stem and pretty green leaves. It was a terrific performance of the Pastoral, they are a superb orchestra, and I'll be happy to go along for their lollipops, after all the main concert includes Mahler's First. Non Mahlerite that I am, I'll certainly want to hear them in that.

[bluestateprommer]

Just to provide some possible context, from looking at the BFO's website, once a year, around Christmas time, the BFO has some items on their calendar with the name of titok-koncert, which translates on the English version of the BFO's page as the "Bag of Surprises" concerts. Taking material from their page:

http://www.bfz.hu/vendegmuveszek/egy_vendegmuvesz_en.php?id=339

'The "bag of surprises" concerts inaugurated seven years ago have turned out to be a tremendous success, proving that there are plenty of people who, without even knowing the works or performers involved, are prepared to join in the fun, and who have enough faith in the concert organiser and conductor Iván Fischer to commit to an "adventure". We primarily recommend these bag of surprises concerts to those of our audience who are curious, young at heart, and intrigued by secrets.

The following is a reminder of some of the secrets which Iván Fischer shared with audiences in earlier bag of suprises concerts: Richard Strauss’ wonderful Legend of Joseph; the twelve-year-old Júlia Pusker’s performance in Kabalevsky’s Violin Concerto; the American soprano Christine Brewer’s interpretations of Richard Strauss arias and Lieder; Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Trumpet Concerto, with the Norwegian virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger soloing; Kurt Weill’s exciting opera The Silver Lake ─ almost unknown in Hungary; Schönberg’s orchestral transcription of Brahms’ Piano Quartet; Mozart’s K.488 Piano Concerto performed by the 92-year-old Lívia Rév, who now lives in France; the showcasing of the works of Salieri, a composer known in Hungary almost only as part of the Mozart legend, the Hungarian premiere of Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus, composed for birds and symphony orchestra. Two years ago the great Hungarian violinist, György Pauk, last year Alfred Brendel said good-bye to the Hungarian audience at Iván Fischer's "bag of surprises" concerts.'

Obviously with the Proms concert, there's an element of audience participation not necessarily present at the Hungarian "bag of surprises" set-up. The response will be curious to see. FWIW, my vote goes to Kodaly's Peacock Variations.

[Ferretfancy]

bluestateprommer

The whole works is only going to last an hour! Not much room for the Peacock Variations,sadly.

[NickWraight]

Also from the BFO's website: "The tour will finish in London, at the famous BBC Promenade Concerts Festival, or as everyone calls it, at the Proms. This will be the BFO's seventh appearance at the world's largest classical music festival, founded 117 years ago. On September 2nd at 7 p.m. we give a concert with works by Liszt and Mahler, followed at 10 p.m. (for another audience) by a so-called "prima vista" concert, where members of the audience can "order" the programme from a menu offering almost 300 different works. Both concerts are held in the Royal Albert Hall and will be broadcasted by the BBC."

Also called a 'Library Concert' on their site, the mind boggles how the choices will be made let alone quickly...!

[David Underdown]

Well, presumably they can start chucking teddies into the Arena as soon as the queues go in, so that would give them a headstart on sorting out the first few pieces, then make choices a few pieces ahead so that the librarians can be sorting out parts offstage while the music is going on. Give previous BFO proms appearances I would suspect that any gaps will be filled with improvisation by members of the band

[salymap]

All credit to them for letting their hair down ............I think

[Prommer]

Are the 300 items on their menu (er, repertoire? Ed) available for scrutiny now?

Anticipating that...

A Hungarian Dance or two
The Marche Hongroise of Berlioz
Liszt
Bartok
Kodaly

Which pieces of the last three composers would be right for this orchestra and this concert (sorry, gig)?

[prokkyshosty]

So. Who do we have to sleep with to get some Vaughn Williams on their menu?