Prom 1 (13.7.12): First Night of the Proms

[Roehre]

Agreed, though at least we can choose NOT to press the red button.

I won't watch it anyway, so thank goodness I will not be tempted to press any red buttons whatsoever

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I shan't watch it either, but I shall definitely be listening on Rado 3, where there won't be the same level of gushing.

[Nick Armstrong]

and not a peep out of the tuk-tuk

It was early and I was somewhat underslept and hungover , having received a late-night visitation from a hard-drinking friend who needed overnight accommodation

[Nick Armstrong]

i'm looking forward to the concert.

So..... is anyone logged in from the queue on their iPad, passing the time by having a crack at an Alphabet Associations puzzle?

[Nick Armstrong]

So..... is anyone logged in from the queue on their iPad, passing the time by having a crack at an Alphabet Associations puzzle?

... Apparently not...

[Anna]

It was early and I was somewhat underslept and hungover , having received a late-night visitation from a hard-drinking friend who needed overnight accommodation

It was not me, I hasten to add!! I'm looking forward to the broadcast, in fact all the broadcasts so I don't have the irritation of the Olympic Games.

[Simon B]

So..... is anyone logged in from the queue on their iPad, passing the time by having a crack at an Alphabet Associations puzzle?

Nope, I'm too busy enjoying reading the "Proms curmudgeon's therapy group" thread. That'll be this one... Though your spherical summation of the imagined thoughts malarkey is spot on.

Might be getting grumpy myself after one of my sporadic encounters with the "computer says no" aspect of the box office. Anyone after a spare stalls O/M ticket for the two VPO concerts? I mean, it's not as though there'll be any demand for them eh? Sigh...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I just wish Mark Elder had conducted Cockaigne.

[MattiRaz]

I just wish Mark Elder was taking the whole lot... Though Cockaigne would be the least he should have taken extra! (I got shot down for expressing this on the BBC's web site, Sir Roger was best I was told...)

[Bryn]

I just wish Mark Elder had conducted Cockaigne.

Why? Tonight we heard a fine performance under the direction of one of the very finest of Elgarians. I'm sure Mark Elder would have offered us a different, and probably similarly valid performance of the work, but for once, Wright, or whoever chose the great Sir Roger Norrington, made an apposite decision. I loved it, but then I find Norrington's way with Elgar to be just the ticket, whether in the 1st Symphony, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne (In London Town) or any other work by Elgar I have had the privilege of hearing him conduct.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tippett's Suite was once an O-level set work in the days of the NUJMB and a deservedly popular choice is turned out to be. I haven't heard it since then - until now.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

in the Coronation Ode, several plusses - good sound balance by the engineers, compared with some of last year's efforts; a civilised audience that doesn't clap between movements. Argh! I spoke too soon.

[teamsaint]

[QUOTE=Caliban;183819]It was early and I was somewhat underslept and hungover , having received a late-night visitation from a hard-drinking friend who needed overnight accommodation [/QUOTE

friends eh..always someones else's fault !!

[Nick Armstrong]

friends eh..always someones else's fault !!

[RobertLeDiable]

This has to be the worst opening programme the Proms has had for a long time. What other major international festival would open with garbage like the Coronation Ode? All the special pleading doesn't make it anything other than dated and provincial. Sea Drift is worth hearing once in a blue moon, I'll give you that, but the tedious Cockaigne has to be the weakest of Elgar's major orchestral pieces, and it wasn't helped by that posing old charlatan Norrington exaggerating virtually all of the rallentandos beyond any musical reason. Listen to Beecham if you want to know how to make it sound passably good.