Proms Fantasies

[jayne lee wilson]

Their eyes met across a crowded arena... she rushed to him, her heart racing and said...
"Scandalous, the dearth of English music this season!"

So, fantasy programme planners, what are you missing? Transylvanian organ music? Australian Piano Concertos of the 1920s?
Show Mr Wright where he's going wrong... with your preferred performers, likely or not...
Your starter for 3...

Janacek: Suite, Cunning little Vixen
David Matthews: The Music of Dawn
Bartok: The Wooden Prince
(BBCPhil/Martin Brabbins)

Stravinsky:Symphony in 3 movements
Procol Harem, arr. Kennedy: A whiter shade of pale
Tippett: Symphony No.2
BBCSO/Rattle

Poulenc: Stabat Mater
Bruckner: Mass No.2
Philharmonia/Dohnanyi

[ahinton]

Their eyes met across a crowded arena... she rushed to him, her heart racing and said...
"Scandalous, the dearth of English music this season!"

!!! - and if that had been you and I, you'd almost certainly have cried "why isn't there more Schönberg?"...

So, fantasy programme planners, what are you missing? Transylvanian organ music? Australian Piano Concertos of the 1920s?
Show Mr Wright where he's going wrong... with your preferred performers, likely or not...
Your starter for 3...

Janacek: Suite, Cunning little Vixen
David Matthews: The Music of Dawn
Bartok: The Wooden Prince
(BBCPhil/Martin Brabbins)

Stravinsky:Symphony in 3 movements
Procol Harem, arr. Kennedy: A whiter shade of pale
Tippett: Symphony No.2
BBCSO/Rattle

Poulenc: Stabat Mater
Bruckner: Mass No.2
Philharmonia/Dohnanyi

Love the first one. David Matthews certainly has an ear and imagination for the symphonic poem - I expect you know others from him such as In the Dark Time; a very remarkable composer whose twelve (to date) quartets are in the throes of being recorded for Toccata Classics.

As to the second; I daresay I could manage to sit (or even stand) the Egregious Igor out if done by those forces (it's one of his very few post-Petrushka works that has any appeal for me, I'm afraid and at least it doesn't outstay its welcome - it knows when to stop, so the composer says "right, let's stop - a nice scrunchy D flat major chord with added wotsits and then some applause, methinks"...). Mention of Tippett 2 (surely his finest symphony?) reminds me of another way this could be done - by sidelining the over-performed Igor and doing what those same forces did once a few years ago by having that in the first half and Bush's Piano Concerto (yes, you know which Bush!) in the second, except that the latter would need some more rehearsal time that it appeared to get previously and Rattle instead of Slattle would elevate the experience considerably (and it would have the added advantage of not needing an intervening "Harem", which would both cost BBC too much and run the possible risk of attracting "the wrong kind of audience for the wrong kinds of reason")...

Anyway, how's about:

Nielsen: Symphony No. 6
Lloyd: (you know which one!): Symphony No. 6
Sibelius: Symphony No. 6
Shostakovich: Sympony No. 6

Another good one would be a programme that I heard years ago in the Victoria Rooms, Bristol played by the Brunel Orchestra / Austin and which comprised:

Payne: Time's Arrow
Elgar: Symphony No. 3
Perhaps BBCSO/Knussen for that

Or perhaps

Matthews (you know which one!): Symphony No. 6
Mahler: Symphony No. 6
BBCSSO/Runnicles

I suppose that one should be careful in the choice of "presenter" for each such concert, especially given the risk that at least one possibility among them might be relied upon to paraphrase both Churchill and Webern by declaring of the Mahler "the only Sixth, despite all the others!"....

Lastly (for now, anyway):

Stevenson: Violin Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
Mistry / BPO/Rattle

[Beef Oven]

Brian - The Gothic, Brabbins et al.

With cameras!

[Bryn]

Brian - The Gothic, Brabbins et al.

With cameras!

And decent audio engineering for Radio 3, unlike the mess SIS Live made of it last year.

[Beef Oven]

And decent audio engineering for Radio 3, unlike the mess SIS Live made of it last year.

At least the Hyperion boys had something to work on!

[Richard Tarleton]

A programme of Byrd and Tallis including you-know-what with some imaginative use of space. Performers - lots of candidates.
Proms matinee - Dowland songs and lute music, Jakob Lindberg and Emma Kirkby.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Any programmes involving the composers that RW clearly dislikes and which are consequently now or in the process of becoming more marginalised by his regime.

For example Scandinavian composers outside of the 'big three' e.g. Berwald, Holmboe, Rosenberg, Melartin, Atterburg, Gade.
Composers such as Milhaud, Honegger, Ropartz, Magnard, Hindemith, Martinu, Miaskovsky. PLus late Stravinsky and what has happened to Carter?
American composers (now only represented by a handful of works and composers), composers I would like to see include, Harris, Schuman, Piston, Hanson, Sessions, Diamond and even Chadwick & Paine, plus lesser known works by Copland, Barber etc.
British composers such as Alwyn, Arnold, Bliss, Rubbra, Stanford, Potter.
Other composers of the 'classical era' M Haydn, Vanhal, Krommer etc, and also more F J Haydn!

Three fantasy proms for suggestion:

Arnold: Symphony No 7
Moeran: Violin Concerto
Holst: Egdon Heath
Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas

Harris: Symphony No 7
Piston: Violin Concerto No 1
Hanson: Elegy for Serge Koussevitsky
Barber: Symphony No 2

Martinu: Symphony No 3
Hindemith: Violin Concerto
Milhaud: Ode for Jerusalem
Honegger: Symphony No 3


I'm dreaming of course, they'll never happen.

[cloughie]

AURIC:Ouverture
FRANCAIX:L'Horloge de Flore
HONEGGER:Pastorale d'ete
TAILLEFERRE:Concertino for Harp & O
JONGEN:Sym Conc for Organ & O
SCHMITT:La Tragedie de Salome

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier

[Osborn]

Their eyes met across a crowded arena... she rushed to him, her heart racing and said...

I'd already guessed from your emotive prose that you write chick lit bodice rippers in your spare time...

(teasing, not serious!)

[Northender]

To be played by the BBC NOW with an English conductor and soloists, or by an English orchestra with a Welsh conductor and soloists:
Grace Williams: Sea Sketches
William Mathias: Clarinet Concerto
Alun Hoddinott: Lanterne des Morts
Alan Rawsthorne: Symphony No. 2 ('Pastoral')
and for an encore:
one or more of Arnold's Welsh Dances

[Nick Armstrong]

AURIC:Ouverture
FRANCAIX:L'Horloge de Flore
HONEGGER:Pastorale d'ete
TAILLEFERRE:Concertino for Harp & O
JONGEN:Sym Conc for Organ & O
SCHMITT:La Tragedie de Salome

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier

Kinky, cloughs! Like it!

[Nick Armstrong]

Nielsen: Symphony No. 6
Lloyd: Symphony No. 6
Sibelius: Symphony No. 6
Shostakovich: Sympony No. 6

I'd be there for that one!

PS: which orchestra / conductor do you think?

LPO / Vanska might be fun...

[Belgrove]

Poulenc: Stabat Mater

Definitely up for that. How about a series of Poulenc's chamber works for the Cadogan Hall series too? And Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks with Bach Brandenburg No 3 at the same place.

For the main venue:

Debussy: Jeux
Faure: Pelleas et Melisande
Koechlin: Les Bandar-log

Stravinsky: Le roi des etoiles
Stravinsky: Pulcinella (complete)
Ravel: L'enfant et les sortileges

and three late night proms:

Arnold: Guitar Concerto
Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
Feldman: Rothko Chapel

[Osborn]

I'd be there for that one!

The gross paying audience for all proms suggested to date ex Gothic & Stravinsky/Ravel is 644 including one gallery ticket at 25p for yourself...

[BBMmk2]

Okay!!

Toccata: Oh! The Blessed Lord(Wilfred Heaton)
Tuba Concerto(Edward Gregson)
A specially comnissioned piece by Marc-Anthony Turngae
A Downland Suite(John Ireland)
Trumpets of the Angels(Edward Gregson)
Elgar Variations(Martin Ellerby)
Eden(John Pikard)
Revealtion(Philip Whilby)

I may edit this at somepoint.