Prom 2 - 19.07.14: China PO, Zhang / Balsom / Long Yu

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 19 July
7.30 p.m. – c. 10.25 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Elgar: Military March, Pomp and Circumstance in G, Op 39, No 4
Tchaikovsky: Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in Eb

Qigang Chen: Joie éternelle (UK premiere)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Maurice Ravel)

Haochen Zhang, piano (Proms debut artist)
Alison Balsom, trumpet

China Philharmonic Orchestra (Proms debut ensemble)
Long Yu, conductor (Proms debut artist)

The China Philharmonic Orchestra makes its Proms debut, launching this season's global orchestras strand. East meets West in a colourful programme featuring Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4, Liszt's First Piano Concerto and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Britain's own queen of the trumpet, Alison Balsom, joins them in Shanghai-born Qigang Chen's new trumpet concerto, a work co-commissioned by the KT Wong Foundation, China Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC, alongside Dutch and German partners.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's great to have a new orchestra at the Proms.
The programme is one that might have been chosen in years gone by when the first night was on a Saturday.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yeah - dire, isn't it!

Could you elaborate?

[Honoured Guest]

It's great to have a new orchestra at the Proms.
The programme is one that might have been chosen in years gone by when the first night was on a Saturday.

Probably because it's the First Saturday Night of the Proms.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well - obviously, but in recent years these Second Nights have become increasingly bitty, as though aimed at an audience with a limited attention span.

[Honoured Guest]

Well - obviously, but in recent years these Second Nights have become increasingly bitty, as though aimed at an audience with a limited attention span.

It appears to be bright and splashy, and attractive and welcoming to anyone curious and keen to attend (or listen to) an orchestral concert. A good idea in this opening weekend concert to avoid anything which demands educated concentrated extended listening, which I assume is what you mean by being "bitty". Pictures at an Exhibition has this positive "bitty" aspect for we general listeners, although you lofty cognoscenti may experience a complex whole, so I suppose we should all be happy!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I really wish I could get rid of this virus

[Tony Halstead]

I really wish I could get rid of this virus

Some viruses respond well to the 'ignore' treatment.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Some viruses respond well to the 'ignore' treatment.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My pleasure:

Yeah - excruciatingly dire, isn't it!

Not really worthy of a forumite I greatly respect.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The programme is one that might have been chosen in years gone by when the first night was on a Saturday.

Yes - it has no doubt been chosen for its wide appeal to general audiences visiting London at the weekend. It doesn't greatly appeal to me - the Tchaikovsky is the only piece that I have any affection for (and the Elgar would be a welcome "lollypop"-type encore). The Liszt and Ravel's orchestral reduction of Mussorgsky's Piano masterpiece will keep me away from this Prom - although it is obviously good for others perhaps less familiar with the repertoire to have the opportunity to discover whether they find the overall programme as dire as I do.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Honoured Guest]

I love Chen Qigang's music - I hope that doesn't deter the rest of you from listening to it and giving it a fair hearing ...

[Petrushka]

It's a bums on seats programme if ever there was one together with Alison Balsom there to put a few more posteriors on chairs.

Let's be frank about it, the China PO isn't the first orchestra that comes to mind to give a concert at one of the world's most prestigious music festivals and one wouldn't expect there to be anything specifically 'Chinese' about their playing anyway.

I'm in London that weekend but will be skipping this one.