Proms: Which Seats?

[Thropplenoggin]

A friend of mine is offering to treat me and Mrs. T (and himself) to tickets for Mahler 9, and says money is no object.

As I'm preparing my Proms planner, I thought it timely to start a thread on seats. Last year, I sat in the side stalls for Mahler 2 and thought the sound excellent, with wonderful views of the orchestra and conductor.

If you had the choice, which seats would you plump for? Promming is not an option.

[teamsaint]

A friend of mine is offering to treat me and Mrs. T (and himself) to tickets for Mahler 9, and says money is no object.

As I'm preparing my Proms planner, I thought it timely to start a thread on seats. Last year, I sat in the side stalls for Mahler 2 and thought the sound excellent, with wonderful views of the orchestra and conductor.

If you had the choice, which seats would you plump for? Promming is not an option.

Go in the gallery and sit on the floor. Best of both worlds. Take yer favourite cushion to park yerself on, tix a fiver, and no corporates to ruin things.

Plus great banter in the Q's.

Well, maybe not great banter.....but banter....perhaps.....

Edit: Hope that all helps, BTW.

Last year queuing for that Mahler, a nice young man sitting on the steps of the Bulgarian Embassy waiting to meet his GF inadvertently found himself in possession of a potentially valuable spot in the Q, which he gallantly gave up for nothing. It was a good deed in a dog eat cat world.....

Edit: as for seats, I'm pretty sure they run competitions on chocolate bar wrappers. Well worth a try. !! I am currently expecting to win a campervan from a well known yogurt manufacturer......

[Petrushka]

Undoubtedly 'O' Stalls. It's a source of annual irritation to me that you cannot say on the Planner which side stalls you want. In the old days of sending in the booking form by post I used to staple a little note to the form saying "'O' Stalls preferred please" and they nearly always obliged.

I've often told the story on here of when I was at a Gergiev/World Orchestra of Peace Prom performance of the Shostakovich Leningrad seated almost in the cellos and double basses in the front row of 'O' stalls on the stage. At the first movement thundering climax with Gergiev seemingly pointing straight at me to cue in the lower strings I experienced an incredible moment of 'lift off', like being in the middle of a terrifying whirlwind. Quite extraordinary.

[Zucchini]

Since it's Mahler, I think the best place to sit is in the park. You'll hear most of it & can crunch as much popcorn as you like

[Flosshilde]

Promming is not an option.

You can sit in the arena. Wouldn't see much though.

[Petrushka]

You can sit in the arena. Wouldn't see much though.

Being 5' 2'' I can see damn all if I stand!

[Ferretfancy]

You can sit in the arena. Wouldn't see much though.

The stewards still ask us all to stand just before the concert starts, and often ask us to move forward even when the Arena is not crowded, However, they are not the minor despots that they used to be, and you can usually stay put, without any argument. I don't like standing near the rail.

I've tried seats on occasion, but there's no doubt in my mind that mid Arena has the best sound in the house, sometimes the crowd soaks up the strings a bit, but for Mahler it will be ideal. Thropple, I sincerely hope you find a good seat. You won't see me down below standing patiently, most Mahler is not my cup of tea.

[Ferretfancy]

Being 5' 2'' I can see damn all if I stand!

I'm 6'00" and still find myself dwarfed by some of today's young giants in the Arena, but usually we are able to gently slide smaller people forward.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm 6'00" and still find myself dwarfed by some of today's young giants in the Arena

[amateur51]

The gentleman said young giants, Caliban

"il a des idées audessus de sa gare!"

[Ferretfancy]

The gentleman said young giants, Caliban

"il a des idées audessus de sa gare!"

Gentleman? I usually just get 'Ere You! '

[bluestateprommer]

A friend of mine is offering to treat me and Mrs. T (and himself) to tickets for Mahler 9, and says money is no object.

As I'm preparing my Proms planner, I thought it timely to start a thread on seats. Last year, I sat in the side stalls for Mahler 2 and thought the sound excellent, with wonderful views of the orchestra and conductor.

If you had the choice, which seats would you plump for? Promming is not an option.

I've posted this link from The Guardian before on this topic, but it's worth trotting out, from someone who knows better than me generally, namely Michael Berkeley:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jul/28/classicalmusicandopera.proms20042

"Under no circumstances should you sit directly opposite the stage (at 12 o'clock if the stage is at six) unless sheltering from Mahler or Bruckner at their most bombastic. This, believe it or not, is where the BBC has most of its hospitality boxes and the music comes at you as though through a telescope held the wrong way round. It is simply too far away.

You need to be quite near the stage, at, say, four or eight o'clock. I would recommend a stalls seat on the aisle of block H1 (my favourites are H8 27 or 28) or its counterpart on the other side of the hall, M1. This is where you will find most of the critics, as well as composers when their work is being premiered."

[Thropplenoggin]

Thanks for that, BSP.

[Norrette]

If it's televised, avoid the side stalls. They use a boom camera which is so distracting - and the 9th needs much concentration I think.

[Nick Armstrong]

If you had the choice, which seats would you plump for?

This vexed question was the subject of discussion a couple of years back, triggered by my unfortunate experience recorded here:

What a bizarre place the RAH is, acoustically-speaking.

Unusually, I was sitting in the stalls, 4th row back at about 5 o'clock (if the organ and the bust of HW are at 12).

From there, I unfortunately found it impossible to enjoy the Elgar. The strings sounded as if they were playing on the other side of the street. Any counterpoint and (above all) brass punctuation - some of my favourite bits in this piece which I adore - was ruined by the notes coming back from the upper balconies and gallery at around 7 o'clock, reverberating into my left ear about ½ second after they came from the stage - it all sounded smudged, like a badly printed photo. It was impossible to become involved in the performance

The Howells was a completely different matter! Somehow the intimate music and the loud choral sounds both came across fine (perhaps because the loud bits sound blurred anyway)

Salymap continued the discussion from here http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...979#post199979 and there are several comments in the ensuing thread.

I'd disagree with Michael Berkeley cited above - I think front stalls at ten to/past or a quarter to/past is optimum.