Prom 1: First Night of the Proms

[amateur51]

A blessing in disguise that I could not get tickets for the First Night - at least if the temperature is the same in London as here. Far more pleasant to listen to my radio with the windows open. (I hope my neighbours do not read this.)

The odd thing is that my memories of last season are of boiling in the hall on at least three of my four visits - yet last year was meant to have been a bad summer. Aren't memories deceptive? (The Apostles stands out as an especially sticky one.)

London's weather picked up for London 2012 Olympics/start of Proms 2012 if I recall correctly, VodkaDilc

[BBMmk2]

I'm going to wait for the televised broadcast. Should be a thrilling evening!

[Serial_Apologist]

Julian Anderson's Richard Jeffries setting was truly magnificent. A beautiful tribute to Henri Dutilleux which would have been appreciated by its dedicatee, I think. I've always had a lot of respect for this composer, for his openmindedness towards contemporary music of all kinds as much as for his music.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I like some of what Anderson has written but I'm afraid I didn't think a lot of it all on 1st hearing, sounded like one of many rather anonymous sounding works that seem to be coming from the pens of current British composers.

[edashtav]

Julian Anderson's Richard Jeffries setting was truly magnificent. A beautiful tribute to Henri Dutilleux which would have been appreciated by its dedicatee, I think. .

Yes, it was lovely & succinct but will it have a life post its earliest performances? There are so many terrific "short" choral & orchestral works that just don't get programmed. Choral Societies tend to rehearse "big beasts" and small fry get ignored. A great shame. My advice to Julian: make the piece a focal point of a suite or sequence. Your piece deserves a long life.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, the Anderson "Harmony" was a beauty, and seemed beautifully played. The rest of Part One? Hmm...

[pastoralguy]

Damn fine playing from Mr. Hough, I thought.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just a note on the TV presentation: I don't think Katie can have consulted the BBC's own pronunciation unit's searchable online database on how to pronounce Lutosławski.

[mercia]

enjoyable and insightful interval feature (I thought)

don't we get online programme notes this year ? they were so good last year

[Madame Suggia]

Enjoying this VW Sea Symphony & remembering hearing Richard Hickox conduct the Philharmonia in a cracking performance in De Montfort hall, Leicester in 2007

[BBMmk2]

I am watching the televised broadcast. I really enjoyed the Julian Anderson piece. Not often I do like contemporary serious music but in this instance, I did. Maybe the way the composer in how he wrote the music down, and capturing the essence of what the author of the text had written down. The Brittten was very good indeed.. Pairing both Rach and WT's Pag variations was a superb idea and worlked very well. With SH, as usual so dexterous on the piano.The music that has really brought the FNOTP to its zenith, for me, was, ofcourse RVW's A Sea Symphony.

I think and I hope that Sakari Oramo will be a great advocate for British music in his tenure of the BBCSO.

[edashtav]

Yes, the Anderson "Harmony" was a beauty, and seemed beautifully played. The rest of Part One? Hmm...

Hmm - very hummable, Jayne Lee, but rather indigestible. I always welcome hearing non-British conductors in "our" repertoire and Oramo did bring new insights to the Britten - I lovely his sharply etched, lonely bird-calls (especially in the 2nd interlude), but was unconvinced by some of his (fast) speeds. I had not heard the Lutoslawski in this garb and I'm afraid I found some of its orchestration to be heavy-handed and lacking in Witold's usual wit and light-footedness. Give me Boris Blacher's heavenly variations each and every Prom season.

Here, I am half-hearing , half typing whilst the RVW sails on. A piece I love to sing but find too variable in inspiration and diffuse in structure to engage me fully as a listener. But... the performance with its myriad choirs, confident orchestral playing and wonderful soloists is making the most of it as an "occasional" piece. Full marks to the BBC for taking a risk by show-casing the piece, throwing maximum resources at it and avoiding lip-service. Without belief, commitment and assured advocacy, the Sea Symphony can seem endless compared with Debussy's La Mer. The performance of the scherzo was terrific - full of brilliant surf and brine... but then.. but then, in shambled Hubert Parry, his heavy boots mired in sticky clay, singing a cloying, jingoistic Victorian tune that made me nauseous and sea-sick. In the next movement, Sir Hubert returned, yelling a quick podcast of his Coronation Anthem: bathetic. And, didn't I hear the ghost of Sir Henry rushing past on a tea clipper packed with jolly tars piping one of his Sea Songs?

No... it's an apprentice work, inconsistent in idiom, a box of tricks to be plundered and refined.

But... I do wish I remained a believer! I can still remember my youthful back straightening at its most "British" moments. This performance was excellent!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No... it's an apprentice work, inconsistent in idiom, a box of tricks to be plundered and refined.

I find it difficult to concur with this. VW could have revised the work, as he did with his next symphony, but he never did. But I'm a little biased as it's definitely one of my desert island choices.

[ARBurton]

Hate to moan bhut did we have to end on such a long held shot of Oramo`s sweat-soaked face...?!

[VodkaDilc]

Excellent sound on FM radio, especially in the Rachmaninov. And it was good, just before the first notes of the first piece, to hear Petroc T say something about "so begins the 2013 series of the Henry Wood Proms". The incessant repetition of the phrase "BBC Proms" becomes very irritating.