Prom 8 - 23.07.14: Pet Shop Boys Prom

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wednesday, 23 July
10.15 p.m. – c 11.40 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Better known as the electro-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe make their Proms debut here as composers. The world premiere of their large-scale work A Man from the Future, inspired by code-breaker Alan Turing, sits alongside new orchestral arrangements of favourite Pet Shop Boys songs with legendary vocalist Chrissie Hynde.

Neil Tennant / Chris Lowe: Overture to 'Performance'
Neil Tennant / Chris Lowe: Pet Shop Boys songs
Neil Tennant / Chris Lowe: A Man from the Future (orch. S. Helbig) (world premiere)

Juliet Stevenson (narrator)
Chrissie Hynde (vocalist)
Pet Shop Boys
BBC Singers
BBC Concert Orchestra
Dominic Wheeler (conductor)

The legendary Pet Shop Boys make their Proms debut in this Late Night Prom, joining the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra for the world premiere of A Man from the Future, a new piece for electronics, orchestra, choir and narrator.
The piece is inspired by the life and work of Alan Turing, who helped break the German Enigma code during the Second World War and formulated the concept of the digital computer, but was prosecuted in 1952 for his homosexuality, receiving a posthumous pardon last year. It comes as a timely homage, 60 years after Turing's death.
The concert also includes new orchestral arrangements by renowned film composer Angelo Badalamenti of five Pet Shop Boys songs chosen by Tennant and Lowe, in which they are joined by Chrissie Hynde, as well as the exuberant overture to their 1991 tour, Performance, heard live in concert for the first time.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I may have posted the above, but I would like to distance myself from it.

[Serial_Apologist]

I may have posted the above, but I would like to distance myself from it.

[Nachtigall]

I may have posted the above, but I would like to distance myself from it.

Well, let's give it a chance, shall we? The Beatles aside, the unique sound of the Pet Shop Boys is the only pop music I've ever warmed to. And the appallingly treated Turing was a member of my college, so I shall certainly be listening.

[french frank]

Well, let's give it a chance, shall we? The Beatles aside, the unique sound of the Pet Shop Boys is the only pop music I've ever warmed to. And the appallingly treated Turing was a member of my college, so I shall certainly be listening.

And it will give their fans plenty to think about for 45 minutes. The event is deemed 'Promsworthy' because there is an orchestra, and the orchestration by Sven Helbig may be very interesting.

[VodkaDilc]

Seeing the title of this thread made me wonder how the likes of William Glock and John Drummond would react if they could see it.

[gurnemanz]

Seeing the title of this thread made me wonder how the likes of William Glock and John Drummond would react if they could see it.

Glock brought the rock band, Soft Machine, to the Proms in 1970.

[MrGongGong]

Glock brought the rock band, Soft Machine, to the Proms in 1970.

sssshhhhh don't say that
we have to keep up the pretence that the Proms have always been just "Classical Music"

[Honoured Guest]

In fact, this is a BBC Concert Orchestra Prom (with the BBC Singers). All the BBC Performing Groups have a guaranteed number of Proms programmes each year.

[Radio64]

Looking foward to this one. They made quite a good job of Battleship Potemkin soundtrack.

Tennant a big Mahler fan. Actually.

[teamsaint]

Looking foward to this one. They made quite a good job of Battleship Potemkin soundtrack.

Tennant a big Mahler fan. Actually.

good link Rads, looks well worth a watch. Not really a big PSB's fan myself, but maybe I have missed some good stuff.

A big Mahler fan eh? I wonder if his collection would pass muster in these parts......

[Radio64]

good link Rads, looks well worth a watch. Not really a big PSB's fan myself, but maybe I have missed some good stuff.

A big Mahler fan eh? I wonder if his collection would pass muster in these parts......

Oooh I wouldn't go that far. I remember reading once he said he was.
And they've done quite a lot of work with Badalamenti.

[Ferretfancy]

Pet Shop Boys

I was rather persuaded to stay for last night's late Prom, and I should say straight away that the Pet Shop Boys are really just names to me, so perhaps my comments should be treated with caution.

After the introductions, with plenty of whoops and cheers from all around me, the BBC Concert Orchestra launched into an orchestral medley of the duo's songs. This was very heavily miked, and with a huge amount of reverberant sound reinforcement, so that it sounded as if you were listening with your head in a bucket. It was interesting, because although you could see all the players, aurally you had no idea where they were on the platform.
Next came Chrissie Hynde, to sing four songs, all slow and in the same key of B minor, in the last song Neil Tennant joined her.

The main item was a newly commissioned piece entitled A Man from the Future, a homage to Alan Turing. For this, Juliet Stevenson stood inside a closed box at the rear of the stage to provide a narration. She was visible through a window at the front, with the BBC Concert Orchestra supplemented by additional percussion and electronics, plus a group fropm the BBc Singers.

I had expected a moving narrative, but the words were completely drowned by the orchestra and effects, the entire hall swamped in a near fortissimo bass drone, sometimes, with rhythm, sometimes just loud, but always continuous. My problem was that there seemed to me to absolutely no relationship between the monotonous music we heard and what we could hear of the story of Turing. Amongst other things, he apparently had quite a good sense of humour -no trace of that here.

It does seem a shame that the intention to honour an important figure came across as a pigmy praising a giant, but that's as I saw it.

I haven't checked to see if the broadcast made any better sense, and full marks to the hard working performers, but I'm afraid this was a pretentious failure.

[grandchant]

Why not see what the young people thought?

https://www.facebook.com/petshopboys?fref=ts

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why not see what the young people thought?

https://www.facebook.com/petshopboys?fref=ts

Note that nearly every comment was made "2 hours ago" and that they don't appear in chronological order. Something fishy, perhaps?