2012 - The Song is Over...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

a new knee, it's up and working nicely

Glad to hear this, Ferret: and here's to many more-a-knees-up!

[gradus]

Didn't hear too many proms but managed several of the up-thread favourites.
Mr Manze and the BBCSSO are made for each other, they seem of one mind.
Manfred was simply sensational as I had expected and I am afraid I also belong to the cloth-eared brigade that enjoyed the BPO's work. Please more Leipzig Gewandhaus visits too, though I didn't warm to Chailly's Mahler 6 as much as others have.

[Simon B]

I'm somewhat late to the party on this thread, but always feel it necessary to let a little time elapse to form an opinion of the season as a whole. Otherwise, my view seems to sometimes be unduly affected simply by some events being very recent memories.

Actually, this year it's relatively easy to identify those which stood out from the rest, despite attending a personal record of 18 concerts. Nothing quite stood comparison with the 2011 Salonen/Philharmonia Prom (most particularly the extraordinary Shostakovich No 1 violin concerto with Lisa Batiashvili), but concerts like that come along very rarely.

Of 2012's offerings, the closest thing was probably the RVW symphonies Prom - principally for the glowing performance of the 5th (the other two were merely very good, but not quite at the same time-standing-still level of intensity).

Close behind for me came the Hallé/Elder Elgar Apostles and then, in order, RLPO/Petrenko's Shostakovich 10, Peter Grimes, Nixon in China and the NYO/Petrenko Turangalila.

The remaining 12, including both Haitink/VPO and the first Rattle/BPO were all enjoyable evenings to a greater or lesser extent.

Overall, the season conformed with my expectations. As ever for me, the most compelling concerts came from (supposedly inferior to the richly upholstered sounding VPO and BPO) British orchestras playing out of their skins like the RLPO, and slightly more unusually the BBCSSO. The Berlioz Requiem is still basically a racket - an impressive spectacle, but nevertheless just sporadically an almighty din based on wafer thin material. Give me the Te Deum any day... Andris Nelsons still does Shostakovich arr R Strauss (though his Mahler has deepened greatly in the last few years judging by the tremendous Mahler 2 the CBSO opened their season in Brum with last weekend)... And finally, the level of sometimes astonishing Proms negativity on these boreds continues to provide excellent post-Prom pub conversation-starter material with another reader (but allegedly not poster!) of them. Keep those spleens primed for venting next season!

[Tony Halstead]

on these boreds

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Keep those spleens primed for venting next season!

Ah, the spleen! The critic's second-favourite organ.

[amateur51]

[QUOTE=Hornspieler;205248]
I chose to ignore the First Night and the Last Night as a matter of total disinterest.


Berlin Philharmonic/Rattle
Sorry, but to me they sounded tired and disinterested

/QUOTE]Disinterested - impartial, lacking in bias. Uninterested - bored, indifferent

[NickWraight]

Compared to the VPO the Berliners were on great form especially the Lutoslawski 3rd. The Leipzig Cloth Hall band were easily the best of the three.

Other highlights include the My Fair Lady; Grimes; Nixon; John Cage evening (it made you listen in a very different way); BBCSSO RVW symphonies; Bach b Mass; NYO Messiaen; LSO Cinderella; late nights of Handel and Italian Vespers even if the former was a tad camp!