I do wish they wouldn't do the vox pop. stuff in the interval - asking members of the audience how they think it's going, and getting replies of varying degrees of inanity. It particularly grates in the interval between the two halves of a work like the St. Matthew Passion. (Wouldn't it be nice if one of the audience members had the nerve to say: "Actually, I'm not willing to discuss this as I think it would be inappropriate at this stage in the performance.")
-
-
I decided long ago that if any broadcaster ever asked me for an instant opinion on anything I would refuse to give it. Alas, no-one has ever asked me, so I've never had the chance to refuse.Originally posted by peterthekeys View PostComment
-
I think I might decline, and then look them in the eye and say: "How do you feel?"Originally posted by Mary Chambers View PostComment
-
The silence at the end was wonderful. Once the presenter started prattling, I pressed the mute button.Comment
-
Simon BOriginally posted by Simon B View Post
If only it was that simple. Given that it may have been three years ago that the first contract for the BPO to appear this year was drawn up, any plan to televise would have needed to have been established then. The BBC cannot just decide on the spur of the moment just to bung a couple of cameras into the hall, there are very large extra costs to consider. In addition, the Beeb no longer has its own camera and sound crews operating at the Proms, everything is now done by outside contractors.
To give a small flavour of reality,when I last worked in television back in the 1990s, putting two people conducting an interview on a sofa for daytime TV was costed at roughly £60,000 an hour. We all forget the scores of people employed behind the scenes for even the most simple programme.
You are right to be irritated by the conflicting information in print about the Proms, they do need to look at their information publishing more carefully, and it's certainly true that some of this year's scheduling has been rather odd. To follow an evening of Brahms symphonies with a late night Missa Solemnis was one example.Comment
-
I was at a Prom where it said this on the ticket earlier in the season. The cameras were present, but not in use. I wondered whether they were there for a late night Prom the same evening and the warning was to alert audience members that they might have a camera looming over the platform, though unmanned. I further wondered whether a different wording was used for concerts where the cameras were not only present, but actually used. (I must look for my First Night ticket to check.)Originally posted by Simon B View PostComment
-
No TV cameras.
The lady in the stalls row in front of me - late 50's, started the applause at the interval and made 3 half hearted claps at the end, before she desisted (realised she was on her own or noticed Rattle with the Baton frozen above his shoulder level?) - then the stage lights dimmed, and the applause started when the lights came up.
An outstanding evening, in so many ways. Richly deserved standing ovation at the end. Rattle stood up the orchestral soloists for applause, the vocal soloists only took applause together. Mark Padmore must be resolutely against taking individual applause - his performance was superb, a great achievement.Comment
-
As was the case regarding Friday's Prom, only the interval feature and Part 2 of last night's Prom have as yet been made available to 'Listen Again' via the iPlayer. Hopefully Part 1 will appear later today.Comment
-
Now resolved, with the whole Prom available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gjz1zOriginally posted by Bryn View Post
The failure to televise this Prom is, I feel, quite some dereliction on the part of the BBC. They give us an interval feature about the staging, but that's it. These are called the British Broadcasting Corporation Proms these days, are they not? So when they have a staging by a luminary such as Peter Sellars, it really is a major missed opportunity. All down to the same production being available on DVD, Blu-ray and online from BPDCH, I guess.
Last edited by Bryn; 07-09-14, 13:34.Comment
-
[QUOTE=Eine Alpensinfonie;407433] . . . innovative staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion . . ."
Well it was fast . . . too fast for the Anglican or choral society tradition, and I'd conjecture too fast for people who wanted to relish Bach's dissonances and rhythms, let alone pray or meditate. The first chorus suggested irresistibly those performances hurried so as to avoid needing to pay overtime to hall support staff. I could not hear what was supposed to be innovative in the voices or instrumental performances.Comment
-
It didn't appeal to everyone:
"O Mensch, bewein" at the end of the first half sounded a terrible scramble to me.
Richard Morrison in the Times, however, describes it as "simply the most gripping and marvellously performed St Matthew I have ever witnessed", praise indeed.
Last edited by Lento; 08-09-14, 16:14.Comment
-
It may well have been better on radio, though I could have done without the larger-than-life soloists' sound balance.Comment
-
The Bach was better than the Rach.Comment
-
A missed opportunity it certainly is, but I'm not so sure that the BBC can be blamed for this. As you rightly point out the same production is available on DVD etc and part of the package may have been that the BBC could not televise it even if they wanted to.Originally posted by Bryn View Post"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
-
I have been asked in the interval of a BBCSSO concert what I thought of the new piece in the first half. I was quite happy to tell the interviewer - why not? It was fresh in my mind, I did have thoughts about it, & I don't see what the difference is between telling a radio interviewer and telling a friend. If you're at a cnocert with a friend don't you discuss the performance during the interval, or do you just talk about your holidays?Originally posted by Mary Chambers View Post
I've no idea if my thoughts were broadcast
Comment
Comment