Prom 1 - 18.07.14: The First Night - Elgar: The Kingdom, BBC SO / A. Davis

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Friday, 18 July
7.30 p.m. – c. 9.10 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Elgar: The Kingdom, Op. 51

Erin Wall, soprano (Blessed Virgin)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers, mezzo-soprano (Mary Magdalene)
Andrew Staples, tenor (St John)
Christopher Purves, baritone (St Peter)

BBC National Chorus of Wales
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

The largest classical music festival in the world, the BBC Proms also boasts one of the mightiest venues. The Royal Albert Hall is a monument to the same Victorian pomp and splendour that swells through Edward Elgar's music. What better way to open this season than with the composer's biblical oratorio The Kingdom - the beautiful 'slow movement' of a musical triptych that started with The Apostles, but that would remain unfinished at Elgar's death.

Celebrated Elgarian and Proms favourite Sir Andrew Davis, a Conductor Laureate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, returns in his 70th-birthday year, joined by a distinguished cast of soloists.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sir Adrian Boult ranked this work even more highly than The Dream of Gerontius, citing its consistency of inspiration. I agree wholeheartedly and would take this work to my "desert island".

[french frank]

Interesting to see the BBC National Chorus of Wales drafted in!

[Honoured Guest]

And on BBC2, straight after the Open golf.

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting to see the BBC National Chorus of Wales drafted in!

A long loo queue is predicted then.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A long loo queue is predicted then.

Have I ever mentioned the time when I was chorus manager for a scratch choir for a recording at CTS Studios with the LPO in the mid-1980s?

They didn't normally do choral recordings there, and orchestras were still male-dominated. During breaks, there was havoc, caused by the long queue for the rather small ladies' toilets. I asked the orchestra and the studio mongers if it would be OK for the women to overspill into the gents' toilets. It was accepted, but caused mirth all round.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Interesting to see the BBC National Chorus of Wales drafted in!

How so? They were always on the schedule and are not infrequent FNOP visitors for works needing extensive choral forces.

[Pulcinella]

And on BBC2, straight after the Open golf.

And once more music lovers are treated as second-class citizens compared to sports enthusiasts, who presumably couldn't bear to miss a minute of the Open or have it transmitted later, as we have to. No doubt an `exciting' finish, if it were to overrun the time slot, will delay the Proms transmission even more!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh. Is golf exciting?



Part III of The Kingdom certainly is.

[Pulcinella]

Oh. Is golf exciting?



Part III of The Kingdom certainly is.

[Honoured Guest]

And once more music lovers are treated as second-class citizens compared to sports enthusiasts, who presumably couldn't bear to miss a minute of the Open or have it transmitted later, as we have to. No doubt an `exciting' finish, if it were to overrun the time slot, will delay the Proms transmission even more!

What's your issue with slightly deferring this Proms tv broadcast? BBC2 covers the whole Open golf event live, so the First Night could only go out on tv live at 7.30 if it were on BBC4. As it is, on BBC2, many more general viewers stumble across the opening of the Proms season, and it inherits a sizeable quantity of viewers from the golf coverage.

[Pulcinella]

...and it inherits a sizeable quantity of viewers from the golf coverage.

Surely you jest?

Why take it for granted that the whole Open event has to be transmitted live, but not the First Night of the Proms?
And what would be wrong with BBC4 anyway?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And what would be wrong with BBC4 anyway?

Precisely.

[VodkaDilc]

What's your issue with slightly deferring this Proms tv broadcast? BBC2 covers the whole Open golf event live, so the First Night could only go out on tv live at 7.30 if it were on BBC4. As it is, on BBC2, many more general viewers stumble across the opening of the Proms season, and it inherits a sizeable quantity of viewers from the golf coverage.

Does the average television viewer still go to the five former terrestrial channels first? I don't care which channel programmes are on. I will look forward to recording the First Night and watching again when I get home - resisting, if I can, the vulgar practice of seeing if I can spot myself in the audience. (though I imagine we've all done it.)

[Honoured Guest]

It's fairly obvious that sports fans much prefer to watch major events covered live, in real time, not deferred.

Showing the First Night on BBC2 is a shop window for the whole Proms season to the general public. Many of them wouldn't notice it at all if it kicked off on BBC4.

The present scheduling gives prominence on BBC2 to both Sport and Music.

It would perhaps suit you better to cut the Proms season by a week and start it on the following Friday when BBC2 could show the First Night live at 7.30.

Or the live concert could be scheduled at 8.00, with an understanding that it would be delayed in the RAH for up to an hour if the Open golf were to over-run, if live tv coverage in real-time were considered paramount.