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

[makropulos]

Well, that was actually good clean fun. I loved the "busking" between items. Catherine Bott took the words out of my mouth. Perhaps it should be tried again. I reckon that with a smaller selection it would make an excellent replacement for the jaded old Last Night of the Proms. What better way to end the season in party mood?

I thought so too - very enjoyable as a kind of multiple-choice encore to the Mahler earlier in the evening, and I thought Iván Fischer had a very friendly and natural rapport with the audience. It's a mark of the Budapest/Fischer combination's confidence in each other that they are happy to do something like this as a visiting orchestra.

And I never thought I'd get to hear a Hungarian tuba player on a didgeridoo.

All very good natured, worked well, and it was always going to be a programme of encores, essentially - which was just fine after what they'd been up to earlier in the evening.

[Petrushka]

Poor Josef Strauss! Not only did he have to live in the shadow of his more famous brother but he now has one of his finest waltzes attributed to said brother.

Actually, of course, fans of the Strauss family have the last laugh because they know that Josef is, in fact, the better composer.

[Prommer]

I was yearning to hear them do something like the Rhine Journey to show off....

[amac4165]

You had to be there really ! (as I was )

very good fun - and good choices too !

[Dave2002]

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)?

You seem to have got remarkably close. I had the feeling that although there was some Wagner in the list that there was no way Fischer was going to allow it. The suggestion for Brahms' 4th symphony, which Ivan F managed to turn into Brahms' first was also dispatched effectively. I was surprised by the enthusiasm for Glinka. I wonder if they ever do get to play any of the pieces by Leroy Anderson which were on the list. Not often, I suspect. "Plink, plank plunk" was deftly elimininated.

One query. what was the film music, played by the brass section?

It was a fun concert, and the car park at Imperial College saved the day re worries about missing last trains, or having to take devious routes to get back home before daybreak. Perhaps not a format for every year, but a return match might work in another couple of years. Finally, there were some odd items on the list, so might be entertaining to find out what they sound like, perhaps using Spotify.

[mercia]

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio3/proms-assets/whatson/2011/prom64.pdf

tempted to ask - if certain items were never likely to be played, why bother putting them on the list (and lugging all the orchestral parts to the hall)

I enjoyed what I heard, it made the Last Night sound rather formal by comparison

[amac4165]

Someone did ask for Bolero He said they would only do a bit of it - like the last four bars hopefully

The Wagner was always 2nd choice when it came to the mass vote- I think if someone had gone for the Siegfried Idyll or possibly Tannhäuser + Venusberg they would have done it.

[BudgieJane]

I have to say that the arena was a bit too keen to make them play all Hungarian stuff,

Not surprising, really. It might be the stuff they play all the time, but it is nice to hear Hungarian stuff well-played by a Hungarian orchestra.

I notice Beethoven 9 wasn't on their list. I'll bet they could play that with no rehearsal better than the rendition we heard the other day.

[prokkyshosty]

Loved the concert, loved the format, loved the fact that my number wasn't picked because my choice of the scherzo from Bruckner's 7th would've had me run out of the hall.

I was snooping around Youtube and found this, some highlights from the BFO's very first concert in 1983:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iS5--4PugA

The first piece they ever performed was the Glinka, so well done, Prommers.

[Quarky]

"What does this mean and how will this work? "

Well it meant an hour or so of pure music making. Pure enjoyment and therefore it worked.

There was absolutely no room for any stuffiness, and speaking as a radio listener, it was pure joy NOT to listen to any intellectualising/ lectures/ eulogies from the presenter/ soloist/conductor on the merits of the piece.

Catharine Bott was however quick-witted enough to inform us that she did play Bartok's Romanian Dances as a child - well done Catharine, but I don't wish to know that.

[cavatina]

I thought it was marvelous fun...well-played with surprisingly few slip-ups, and I found the Kodaly and Glinka to be particularly impressive (though the lone banshee wail in favour of Mahler's Adagietto at 50.36-37 was mine. ) The Arena definitely stacked the deck when it came to the audience vote, but I'm glad we ended up with so much Hungarian music, since it was surely in the best possible hands. Here's hoping we can do it again sometime!

What would you have picked? I definitely would have gone for the Rite of Spring, part II.

[Dave2002]

Finally, there were some odd items on the list, so might be entertaining to find out what they sound like, perhaps using Spotify.

Are the programmes for the Proms available online? In particular, the list of pieces for this concert? I also had 87 (Bruckner 7, scherzo) on my short list of possibles, but it became obvious how longer and more serious pieces were going to be dealt with after a few minutes. My list also had 5, 16, 18 and 230. 18 did of course come up, and I much appreciated 143, which I didn't choose but voted for - don't think I'd heard it live before.

Re the suggestion that only 4 bars of Bolero should be played, I think it deserves more than that, but as Fischer said "which bars?". I'm not sure that the bars with the key change would have much impact in isolation. They could add in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast for next time (no problem about the lack of the choir - just get the orchestra to shout "Slain")' and maybe even The St Matthew Passion - I feel sure that Ivan could find a way of shortening it to a bar or two.

90, 144, 284 and 285 are totally unknown as far as I'm concerned, and 91 and 92 are somewhat obscure. I did wonder if anyone was going to ask for 148 or 149, but I expect they'd have gone the way of 150, with a quip from IF.

[mercia]

the list of pieces for this concert

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio3/proms-assets/whatson/2011/prom64.pdf

(page 6 onwards)

[Brompt1]

Here's hoping we can do it again sometime!

Absolutely!

[Ferretfancy]

For those of us who were there in the Promenade for the earlier concert, this was splendid icing on the cake. Naturally they played the Bartok and Kodaly items to the manner born, but they gave a fairly slip free account of the Stravinsky Tango, and what a masterpiece Spharenklange is! The whole thing was very enjoyable with the orchestra members doing their party pieces while the music parts were being handed round. I doubt if any other orchestra would do this with confidence.
If anybody would like a little more didgeridoo music, there's a fascinating piece by the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe called Earth Cry, coupled with other orchestral works on Naxos. well worth searching out.