Prom 76 (8.9.12): Last Night of the Proms 2012

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday 8 September at 7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Mark Simpson: Sparks (c2 mins)
BBC Commission, World Premiere
Suk:Towards a New Life (6 mins)
Delius: Songs of Farewell (18 mins)
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera – ‘Forse la soglia attinse
… Ma se m’è forza perderti’ (5 mins)
Massenet: Werther – ‘Pourquoi me réveiller?’ (3 mins)
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor (25 mins)
Puccini: Tosca – ‘E lucevan le stelle’ (3 mins)
Puccini: Turandot – ‘Nessun dorma’ (3 mins)
John Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme (5 mins)
Dvorák: Overture 'Carnival' (9 mins)
Shostakovich: The Gadfly – Romance (6 mins)
Brodzsky: The Toast of New Orleans – ‘Be my love’ (3 mins)
Lara: Granada (3 mins)
Rodgers: Carousel – ‘You’ll never walk alone’ (4 mins)
Wood: Fantasia on British Sea-Songs (20 mins)
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (8 mins)
Parry, orch. Elgar: Jerusalem (4 mins)
Traditional: The National Anthem (2 mins)

Nicola Benedetti violin
Joseph Calleja tenor
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Belohlávek conductor

Jiri Belohlavek conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the traditional Last Night of the Proms festivities with special guests violinist Nicola Benedetti and tenor Jospeh Calleja.

The year's biggest musical party at the end of the world's greatest musical festival in what is a special summer for London promises to be a special event. Since taking the nation by storm as the 2004 BBC Young Musician of the Year, Scottish-born Nicola Benedetti has enhanced her reputation as one of Britain's most innovative and creative young violinists and tonight she's playing Bruch's luscious Violin Concerto, a piece often voted the nation's favourite. Also on stage is Joseph Calleja, the Maltese tenor who sings with the grace and elegance of the voices of a bygone era. In his last concert as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek brings with him two works by fellow Czechs - Dvorak and Suk. All this before the familiar home-grown classics bring down the curtain in time-honoured fashion.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I, for one, amd pleased that the Henry Wood Sea Songs Fantasia has been revived, WITHOUT the politically correct and musically/nautically inept insertions by Bob Chilcott (a musician I normally respect).

The concert itself is incredibly long - surprising in view of the short measure given to some other concerts.

[VodkaDilc]

I suppose that, much as we might prefer some more substantial pieces, the succession of short items is very much in Henry Wood's tradition.

[salymap]

I'm glad Henry's Sea Songs are back but otherwise- a little like eating a whole box of not the best chocolates at one sitting.

[Alison]

Why are Last Nights so long ? Even if I'm quite enjoying the concert I find the length excessive. Do we expect the general viewer/listener to have inordinate amounts of stamina ?

[MrGongGong]

/nautically inept insertions .

What's a "nautically inept insertion" ?

and have you asked CANOE ?

(calm down at the back now )

[Pabmusic]

Suk's V nový život (Towards a New Life) won the silver medal in the arts section of the 1932 Olympics at Los Angeles. I have a feeling it was the most successful musical entry ever (1948 was the last time the Olympics had an arts section). Suk actually cheated, because any work entered had to be new (that is, written since the previous Olympics), yet the first version of Suk's march (the Sokol March) was written and performed about 1920.

I don't think it goes down in Olympic history as a major scandal, though.

[amateur51]

I'm glad Henry's Sea Songs are back but otherwise- a little like eating a whole box of not the best chocolates at one sitting.

That sounds like Payne's Poppets, salymap, a great favourite of great-auntie Rose who gave them to me & my brother on every visit

[Northender]

What - only 18 items! How on earth can people be expected to concentrate for such long periods?

[Serial_Apologist]

That sounds like Payne's Poppets, salymap, a great favourite of great-auntie Rose who gave them to me & my brother on every visit

I thought Payne's Poppets was the subtitle of Elgar 3?

[salymap]

I suppose no-one else is old enough to remember 'Lady' Jessie Wood, who haunted last night rehearsals in the late 1940s until her death, moaning to everyone at rehearsal about 'naughty, naughty Malcolm' who had cut more of dear Henry's songs.

Poor old lady, the conductor and orchestra just ignored her but she had a point, Henry's original songs got less every year.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What's a "nautically inept insertion" ?

An insertion that is put into a sea song collection, but is not a sea song at all - Danny Boy; All Through the Night. Mind you, I'm not too sure about Home Sweet Home.

[MrGongGong]

An insertion that is put into a sea song collection, but is not a sea song at all - Danny Boy; All Through the Night. Mind you, I'm not too sure about Home Sweet Home.

aaah

so this would be ok ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE32tcojArI

as it's from the Music in Sea Minoralbum

[Pabmusic]

An insertion that is put into a sea song collection, but is not a sea song at all - Danny Boy; All Through the Night. Mind you, I'm not too sure about Home Sweet Home.

Or See, the Conquering Hero Comes, or indeed, Rule Britannia! Or (to be very picky indeed) The Saucy Arethusa or Tom Bowling - popular 18th-Century ballads. In fact, the only real 'sea' song in the piece (in the sense that sailors might really have sung it at sea) is Spanish Ladies.

The piece isn't really supposed to be a grand selection of sailors' songs, anyway, but rather a musical depiction of the build-up to Trafalgar (it was written for the centenary in 1905). I read once that Sir Henry would include it anywhere in the Proms season - including the opening night. It was Sargent who made it a feature of the Last Night (and it was he who introduced Jerusalem - always in Parry's orchestration, too).

[David Underdown]

But they are all songs associated with the Royal Navy (which can't be said of the other insertions)