Prom 75 - 7.09.13: Last Night of the Proms

[Petrushka]

I am tired of the LNOTP now, an institution that probably shoud be discontinued but I am not then sure how you would end the Prom season...Each year I always sa[y] to myself, why do I bother to watch it and probably won't in the future if it continues in the current vein.

I think this describes my own ambivalence to the LNotP pretty accurately too. It is, like Trooping the Colour and Remembrance Sunday, one of the markers of the passing year and without any of these the year would seem somehow incomplete.

I'm not sure about Roger Wright's expressed attitude but I think that previous Proms Directors privately despaired of the Last Night but it has become such a sacred cow that any tinkering with it provokes howls of outrage and cries that civilisation has collapsed. Still, it must be an enormous money generator and surely helps keep ticket prices for the more serious fare much lower than otherwise.

[doversoul1]

Hear hear. Nige is a caricature now. I don't think it's the job of a soloist to draw more attention to himself than to the music.

I always watch the Last Night, though I'm not sure why. Just habit, I think. There is some good music in there among the junk, and I quite enjoy the ritualistic element.

Iestyn Davies was the high point for me, though I suspect not for most of the audinece. What a singer.

Thank you, Mary, for drawing attention to Iestyn Davies's appearance (in your post earlier on the thread), or I’d have missed it. There is no mention of him in the schedule page of R3 website. I watched it on iPlayer this morning. Only this part. I didn’t think I could face the rest.

He seems to get better and better.

[Rupert P Matley]

How to reinvigorate the Last Night of the Proms?

Get the John Wilson Orchestra to take it over!

[Tony Halstead]

How to reinvigorate the Last Night of the Proms?

Get the John Wilson Orchestra to take it over!

Yes!

[BBMmk2]

Couldn't have put it better myself Mary! he has such talent but he is wasting it on such trivial issues.

LNOP is not the night it once was. Are becoming hmmm rather nonchalant?

[VodkaDilc]

How to reinvigorate the Last Night of the Proms?

Get the John Wilson Orchestra to take it over!

I fear that day could be not too far away.

[DracoM]

Precisely what I thought as I listened to Di Donato hamming her way through patronising claptrap. Friday Night is Music Night from R2 the whole thing. And Ms Alsop making a big point in her speech about the gender issue thus making the whole event about HER seemingly.

No doubt RW will be glowing with satisfaction as he drags the Proms closer to CFM.

In despair. DQF? You've got to be joking.

[Flosshilde]

Some people here seem to be obsessed with things that don't really matter.

Like the gender of the conductor (not suggesting that anyone here is so obsessed)

Perhaps NK should play from behind a screen, so people wouldn't be distracted by his appearance - which must be calculated to make a 'statement', as he surely has just about enough money to buy a new Aston Villa shirt (is that the right team?)

[teamsaint]

perhaps kennedy was making an oblique point about the cost of new Footy Shirts for hard pressed fans?

perhaps he mistook the gig for Proms in the Villa Park?

[BBMmk2]

I know he had a mental breakdown a few years ago but..................

[gurnemanz]

Just read through all the comments with interest. Like Mary, I watch it because I always have, so presumably don't hate it enough not to bother with it. They're as likely to discontinue it as they are Trooping the Colour. (I don't watch that). I will admit to frequent zapping away to a quite superb tennis match between Djokovic and Wawrinka at the US Open which was on the whole much more watchable. I loved Joyce in the first half but not in Rainbow and Danny Boy. Nothing new about Kennedy behaving like a showman. Some mucking about on the Last Night is tolerable but he went OT in the second half. I'm not a friend of the Chichester Psalms but like the Candide bits.

[Bert Coules]

On the subject of tinkering, there seems to have been very little protest this year at the dropping of the Sea Songs. Let's hope that if they do return, whenever that might be, the gap will have caused some elements of the audience to forget about bringing air-horns, toy trumpets and other noise-makers. As I remarked earlier, their absence yesterday was very refreshing.

Like others, I too tend to watch the Last Night because I somehow feel that I should. The compulsion is an interesting phenomenon. In my London-based student days, when I used to buy Arena season tickets, I went to a few too, and thoroughly enjoyed them - though memory (backed up by a couple of commercial LPs of the time) says that things were less boisterous and more controlled back then. One year (and possibly more than one) Colin Davis memorably brought the queuing Promenaders in early for a rehearsal and not just for new pieces but for all the old standards too: it's hard to imagine that happening now.

[Nick Armstrong]

Nige is a caricature now. I don't think it's the job of a soloist to draw more attention to himself than to the music.

All I heard of the Last Night was Nige and the Lark - I had to check that the sensitive playing WAS NK.

Radio is best for Nige IMHO.

You said it all, ladies.

Like saly, I caught the VW on the radio, and as there had been talk of NK not being out on bail, I also checked. It was a gorgeous performance - on the radio.

Because she is magnificent - and not just in Rossini. If you don't appreciate her, I am sorry for you. I saw her as The Lady of the Lake six times at Covent Garden, and was pleased to have another opportunity this evening.

Good for you.

I can't bear it, but no need to be sorry for me, I'll be ok thanks: there's plenty of music to appreciate and it saves huge amounts of money!

[VodkaDilc]

I've just found my old collection of Proms Prospectuses. How's this for a good Last Night:

Brian - Festival Fanfare
VW - Serenade to Music
Walton - Belshazzar's Feast
Britten - Piano Concerto
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance No 1
Holst - The Perfect Fool
Arne - Rule Britannia
Parry - Jerusalem

A perfect programme, I'd say, with real substance (and no Sea Songs). This was 1974 and was conducted by Sir Charles Groves.

[BBMmk2]

I've just found my old collection of Proms Prospectuses. How's this for a good Last Night:

Brian - Festival Fanfare
VW - Serenade to Music
Walton - Belshazzar's Feast
Britten - Piano Concerto
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance No 1
Holst - The Perfect Fool
Arne - Rule Britannia
Parry - Jerusalem

A perfect programme, I'd say, with real substance (and no Sea Songs). This was 1974 and was conducted by Sir Charles Groves.

Ah, Sir Charles Groves. I've been conducted by him. Such a master he was. (Probably as we were students!)