Prom 74: Saturday 10th September at 7.30 p.m. (Last Night of the Proms)

[EdgeleyRob]

What's wrong with the Britten arrangement?

Nothing.To my ears it's the only arrangement that almost makes the National Anthem interesting rather than a dirge.

[french frank]

no doubt there are direct sales and CD dvds etc but they probably don't cover the 8mil deficit

I don't think it's as much as £8m. If I remember the figures for a few years back (David U. will know), the total cost was about £9m. Deficit nearer £3.5m-£4m?

Posted by Alywin:

I thought I saw something about £35 for Hyde Park. Judging by the number of people there seemed to be there tonight, it must be a nice little earner.

Crumbs! That's getting up towards top price for a seat in the hall. And all those people! (But expenses higher: probably Katherine Jenkins and Westlife get paid more than the BBCSO)

[pilamenon]

I tried to combat my deeply ingrained prejudice against the Last Night, and tried to engage with a lot of it.

The opening piece may have been well-intentioned, but it was one of the worst crimes against music I have ever heard - a sub-schools broadcast singalong interspersed with bits of doodling that the composer could have knocked out on medication. And lyrics of embarrassing banality. This is one world premiere that need never be heard again.

Both the Bartok and Wagner were distinctly underwhelming - and I, too, put this down to the dismal sound quality, which has been a depressing feature of this year.

Lang Lang's performance of Liszt was the highlight by a country mile. Firstly, this concerto is a total masterpiece, does everything a concert does, grand, virtuosic and poetic by turns and doesn't outstay its welcome. The soloist is of course the showman par excellence, a Liberace for our age. I found his playing quite spellbinding.

Bowed out of part two when the Britten came on - couldn't take the feeble humour - but came back to watch the singalong, and agree with the poster who said it feels just an empty shell of a thing, an embarrassment, compounded by that dismally unfunny costume, the barking out of Rule Britannia in a way that suggested irony on the part of the performer, if not the audience, and then a very bland speech indeed.

After Lang Lang, I was glad to have tuned in, but by the end it was grim indeed.

[french frank]

I do recall a time when Part 2 was broadcast on the Light Programme (Radio 2 that was). The Proms G & S night was too.

I think Proms in the Park is on R2 now.

[By 'now', I mean 'in recent years'.]

[VodkaDilc]

I think Proms in the Park is on R2 now.

[By 'now', I mean 'in recent years'.]

Am I right in thinking there were fewer parks this year? Didn't previous locations include Salford and elsewhere? Is this a good sign? Could the BBC's interest in this type of entertainment be waning? (Nothing wrong with it in its place, but nothing to do with the Proms!)

[VodkaDilc]

On the subject of the Proms in the Parks, why do they insist on showing pictures of those locations during the traditional Last Night items (Elgar, Jerusalem, Sea Songs, when included.) They are always out of sync and do the audiences at those events no favours at all, by making them look so uncoordinated.
Like most people reading this I imagine, I resisted the frequent invitations to 'press the red button' and see the events for myself.

[pilamenon]

I pressed the red button out of curiosity and boredom with the main event, in time to see the attractive but musically impoverished Westlife run through songs that were middle-aged when they came out, and now sound like they're being performed on Mogadon. They get the punters in, but what on earth do they have in common with the Proms? Then we switched to the tail-end of Alfie Boe murdering 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' in Dundee.

[Barbirollians]

I think it must have been the worst LNOTP I have ever seen .

[french frank]

Am I right in thinking there were fewer parks this year? Didn't previous locations include Salford and elsewhere? Is this a good sign? Could the BBC's interest in this type of entertainment be waning? (Nothing wrong with it in its place, but nothing to do with the Proms!)

Well, they usually take place in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. Was there an extra English one in previous years?

Given the 'disappointment' in Swansea at the PitP moving to Caerphilly, I wonder what the weather was like in Swansea last night?

[Franzl01]

That's what I thought. Yet the BBC appears to think that the Caird Hall is a park.

Talking of the correct words for "Auld Lang Syne", how many people sing the correct words in the chorus of "Rule Britannia"? It should be "Britons never, never, never will be slaves." It is/was correctly printed in the Oxford Song Book.

Please forgive the pedantry, but i think there is only one 'never'.

[Bert Coules]

True enough, as originally writ. But if we're talking "accuracy" surely that should mean singing all the verses? Isn't leaving words out as inauthentic as putting words in?

[Stunsworth]

After reading many of the comments regarding the concerts - not just this one - it seems to me that the BBC should abandon the season altogether. There seems to be such a level of negativity about most of them that as a series they appear to be a waste of artistic time.

On the other hand it could just be that people like to show how more sensitive their sensibilities are compared to the great unwashed by finding fault with everything.

[David Underdown]

The correct words are in the programme (though Auld Lang Syne is never printed). Of course the problem is firstly that an s sung in the wrong place will always be audible, and secondly that most people have never actually seen the words to Auld Lang Syne

[barber olly]

Edward Gardner is obviously a very talented conductor. Last night's concert was a serious concert for the first half and the first part of the second half, even the YPG was treated fairly seriously. Then the Park bit came in and it sunk. There was a very poor last night atmosphere and the R&H participation songs were dreadful. EG seemed out of his comfort zone thereon in and not helped by the mic malfunction (Did Flash Harry need a mic those years ago?). Next year, ditch the parks, bring back the Seasongs and schedule a conductor in tune with the occasion - Andrew Davis used to do a good job! Too many traditions are lost because of apathy or fear that a younger generation might not like it or political correctness.

[amac4165]

even the YPG was treated fairly seriously.

not where i was standing - it wasn't

we totally lost it at the bit about "trombones" Luckily we were standing at the back