Prom 76 - 13.09.14: The Last Night; BBC SO, Oramo

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The BBC only has one regional orchestra, the Philharmonic based in Manchester ....

Salford, officially, I believe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1jdlh7B05gZQ5Kqk93xl90/about-the-orchestra

[Simon B]

Salford, officially, I believe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/prof...-the-orchestra

Whose future, or lack of, probably now depends (bizarrely & entirely unintentionally) on a decision to be made in Scotland this week.

Meanwhile, back at the appearance of many hitherto unfamiliar international orchestras at Proms '14:

1) I'm rather surprised that others don't seem to have attributed this to financial motivations in major part. One thing most of them will have been is cheap to put on relative to the more usual suspects.

2) Their presence was reflective of the global trend for western classical orchestras - contraction in N America and Europe, expansion elsewhere.

3) Many of them didn't sound exactly... inspiring to my jaded? ears. The glaring exception to this was the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, who also eschewed the mostly wholly safe programming of the rest and played with character, verve and virtuosity. Invite them back.

[Flosshilde]

So the BBC Scottish Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the jointly subsidised Ulster Orchestra are all employed by Local Borough Councils?

I think not.

HS

You might not have noticed (although you would have to be on another planet not to have with regard to Scotland at the moment) but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are nations, not regions.

But it's not just my opinion - the BBC understands the difference -

The BBC Trust, after public consultation, has divided this remit into six specific priorities:
1.Represent the different nations, regions and communities to the rest of the UK.


But you are so certain that what you say is right (& give every impression that you stopped thinking some time ago) that you probably won't believe them.

[Hornspieler]

You might not have noticed (although you would have to be on another planet not to have with regard to Scotland at the moment) but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are nations, not regions.

But it's not just my opinion - the BBC understands the difference -

The BBC Trust, after public consultation, has divided this remit into six specific priorities:
1.Represent the different nations, regions and communities to the rest of the UK.


But you are so certain that what you say is right (& give every impression that you stopped thinking some time ago) that you probably won't believe them.

I would say that they are Regions of the United Kingdom, have always been referred to, as have the Royal National Scottish Orchestra, the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool, Birmingham, Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth as Regional Orchestras.

Shouldn't this pointless argument be more properly sited on Pedants Paradise?

HS

Don't bother to reply - I'm not interested.

[Old Grumpy]

You might not have noticed (although you would have to be on another planet not to have with regard to Scotland at the moment) but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are nations, not regions.

But it's not just my opinion - the BBC understands the difference -

The BBC Trust, after public consultation, has divided this remit into six specific priorities:
1.Represent the different nations, regions and communities to the rest of the UK.

Oh, and HS, it's Royal Northern Sinfonia now, if you don't mind - but I suspect you're not interested!

[Hornspieler]

I think it's good that the regional orchestras (BBC or not) get a platform at the Proms - it's hard enough for them to lure reviewers to their natural habitats.

And I enjoyed hearing the orchestras from abroad, even if some were 'better' than others.

Good post

[Flosshilde]

Oh, and HS, it's Royal Northern Sinfonia now, if you don't mind - but I suspect you're not interested!

Good post

[french frank]

In addition, I'd return the Proms to what it should always be: a classical music festival so no more Pop acts please. Perhaps the season should also be shortened by a week.

Not sure whether shortening by a week would make that much difference, but concentrating on the main evening concerts, cutting the late night ones unless there's a good reason (all night Indian classical), giving up the pretence that Laura Mvula, Paloma Faith and the Pet Shop Boys attract a new audience to classical music when they're probably only to boost the number of sell-out concerts. Oh, and to increase the number of first time Prommers

"Around 33,000 people bought tickets for the first time..." Any indication as to which concerts they went to see? Add War Horse, CBeebies and Kiss Me Kate to the three pop concerts and you've probably got a fair percentage of that 33,000

And yet, and yet, attendance figures were sharply down. They'll just have to increase the number of pop concerts.

[teamsaint]

Not sure whether shortening by a week would make that much difference, but concentrating on the main evening concerts, cutting the late night ones unless there's a good reason (all night Indian classical), giving up the pretence that Laura Mvula, Paloma Faith and the Pet Shop Boys attract a new audience to classical music when they're probably only to boost the number of sell-out concerts. Oh, and to increase the number of first time Prommers

"Around 33,000 people bought tickets for the first time..." Any indication as to which concerts they went to see? Add War Horse, CBeebies and Kiss Me Kate to the three pop concerts and you've probably got a fair percentage of that 33,000

And yet, and yet, attendance figures were sharply down. They'll just have to increase the number of pop concerts.

I would be interested to know where you found the attendance stats , FF, and if there was any breakdown in the numbers, crunching wise.

[french frank]

I would be interested to know where you found the attendance stats , FF, and if there was any breakdown in the numbers, crunching wise.

Where else but The Man Who Knows
I hadn't located a BBC press release. It will appear NOW or not at all.

[french frank]

Where else but The Man Who Knows
I hadn't located a BBC press release. It will appear NOW or not at all.

I think the figures came from BBC tweets

[french frank]

Whereas last year there was a press release straight away http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lat...-final-figures

[teamsaint]

Where else but The Man Who Knows
I hadn't located a BBC press release. It will appear NOW or not at all.

Thanks .
All very unrevealing, and wrapped in BBC spin.

Simon B has nailed it on this issue.
It might incidentally be interesting to see what total ticket receipts were, given that seat prices were well up on 2013, I think.

[Blotto]

Where else but The Man Who Knows
I hadn't located a BBC press release. It will appear NOW or not at all.

Sales of 88%.

I would be interested to know what the overall attendances were because the three concerts I attended had large numbers, sometimes very large numbers of empty seats, mostly in the circle.

I think the Hall would have those attendance stats because every ticket is scanned as the holder leaves or enters (do season tickets/box owners have a pass of some kind which is also scanned at the door?). The scanned ticket bar code must be absorbed somewhere centrally because you can re-enter by being scanned again at any door. So the number of attendees would be exactly quantifiable each night, I should think.

[french frank]

The bottom line seems to be that concerts were 88% sold out, compared with 93% last year and 2012. In 2013 76% of the main concerts were sold out compared with 'over half of all concerts' this year. This year 300,000 attended 88 concerts, last year 'More than 300,000 attended 88 concerts'. Makes you wonder whether '300,000' was perhaps 297,000 or 295,000 or ... &c.