Televised Proms

[Nick Armstrong]

Welcome back mr Pee

Ah HAAA !!!

[MrGongGong]

Ah HAAA !!!

2 choc ices and a request please

[Nick Armstrong]

2 choc ices and a request please

Ruddy Hell, it's Soft Cell !

[Lento]

I see BBC Four have gone down the same old route as last year....A new work by Jonathan Dove also happened at that same concert, but did they televise that? NO!

If they are avoiding putting new works on BBC4, that is sad indeed, and would seem to defeat its purpose.

[french frank]

This was last year's programme. If I remember they didn't actually play the complete pieces.

If I remember [again], Tom Service and Gillian Moore discussed the advantages/disadvantages of programming new music along with standard repertoire. I don't think I'm misrepresenting Gillian Moore in saying she didn't think it a particularly good idea.

[maestro267]

While a dedicated programme for new works is a way to see them televised, it still places these works outside the context of the concert they were originally programmed with. This enforces the new approach the BBC have of dealing with televised Proms, as a made-for-TV "highlights package" rather than an Event that they allow us a "ticket" into.

[VodkaDilc]

Those who construct each Prom are surely aiming to produce a well-balanced programme and, despite occasional moans, they usually succeed. Why does the BBC then undermine the expertise of their staff by chopping up the programmes for later broadacsts? It baffles me - and, as a result, I usually avoid televised Proms.

[Petrushka]

This was last year's programme. If I remember they didn't actually play the complete pieces.

If I remember [again], Tom Service and Gillian Moore discussed the advantages/disadvantages of programming new music along with standard repertoire. I don't think I'm misrepresenting Gillian Moore in saying she didn't think it a particularly good idea.

Is she saying that new music should be shoved into a ghetto? Surely not! If so this would completely destroy Henry Wood's mission in founding the Proms in the first place and on the BBC's stated mission to educate and inform.

Clever programming can succeed in bringing new music successfully to a large audience who wouldn't otherwise hear it. There have been many such examples in my 36 years of attending the Proms and I hope it continues. The Sally Beamish work the other night was a case in point, though sad to say I wasn't there. I wonder how many people found it an unexpected delight and will be looking for the recording when it comes out?

[Anna]

This thread is so very familiar - Oh yes, I read it all last year about the Proms!

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?8692-TV-Proms/page2

The powers that be obviously didn't read it and are still getting it wrong ....

[french frank]

Is she saying that new music should be shoved into a ghetto? Surely not! If so this would completely destroy Henry Wood's mission in founding the Proms in the first place and on the BBC's stated mission to educate and inform.

This quote from the man RW is just about to replace, Jonathan Reekie: '... his main point concerning programming is about attitude. “You mustn’t be apologetic about new music and you mustn’t be scared of it”, he says. That familiar approach of squeezing a new work into the middle of a concert of Beethoven and Brahms is not for him...'

The article is about Southbank's The Rest is Noise, and has some interesting stats about those who attended the festival.

[bluestateprommer]

Don't know if this Guardian blog post on new music at The Proms on BBC TV has made it to discussion here (it probably has, and I just missed it), but in case not:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/aug/28/birtwistle-nyo-prom-bbc-new-music-susanna-eastburn

[aeolium]

Don't know if this Guardian blog post on new music at The Proms on BBC TV has made it to discussion here (it probably has, and I just missed it), but in case not:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/mus...sanna-eastburn

And, on the same theme, the BBC's policy of excluding new works from the TV broadcasts has come in for flak:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/02/bbc-accused-cutting-new-music-tv-proms

The BBC spokeswoman's excuse for this policy seems particularly lame: "In making those choices, the Proms team and the commissioning editor have to bear in mind the audience and that newer works are often less familiar to them." Well surely newer works are going to be less familiar, and new commissions broadcast for the first time will be completely unfamiliar - that's the point, isn't it?

[pureimagination]

For any fans (I'm not one) of Harrison Birtwistle on this forum you may want to avoid the comments (on the Guardian website) that follow articles. Harrison get's some praise but there's an awful lot of comments on the old 'contemporary classical music' is it any good? debate.

[Nick Armstrong]

you may want to avoid the comments (on the Guardian website) that follow articles.

There are some great laughs to be had there, though. This for instance

"new music is not worth listening to.

In fact, out of the colossal amount of classical music composed, only a tiny fraction have survived.

Take piano concertos, for example.

We haven't had a decent one written since Rachmaninoff's number two composed in 1900.

Only a handful have stood the test of time such as Tchaikovsky's Number 1, Beethoven's 3rd,4th and 5th, Grieg's, and Brahms' number 2.

The rest barely get played at all.

There is only a limited amount of sound that delights the human ear."

[teamsaint]

There are some great laughs to be had there, though. This for instance

"new music is not worth listening to.

In fact, out of the colossal amount of classical music composed, only a tiny fraction have survived.

Take piano concertos, for example.

We haven't had a decent one written since Rachmaninoff's number two composed in 1900.

Only a handful have stood the test of time such as Tchaikovsky's Number 1, Beethoven's 3rd,4th and 5th, Grieg's, and Brahms' number 2.

The rest barely get played at all.

There is only a limited amount of sound that delights the human ear."

thanks for flagging up those comments, Cals. A really good laugh.

(I do feel sorry for anybody actually trying to make a sensible point on there though).