Prom 65 - 05.09.14: Paloma Faith, Guy Barker Orchestra, Urban Voices Collective

[teamsaint]

Oh, go easy on the poor girl... as I said above, she did seem a bit overwhelmed by the occasion...

You just hope The Management give some reflective thought to it all...

A Prom concert is a big opportunity. For somebody, for music, for the audience. i would really like to think that some very serious thought goes into what is programmed.
It is no doubt a matter of pragmatism that certain things get programmed for ease, or because of expectation....the BBC orchestras will get some outings, Beethoven symphonies to sell tix, whichever big foreign orchestras or star conductors or soloists are doing the rounds. But even allowing for that, the paying public, and that includes licence fee payers and those who buy tickets, should surely expect high standards of thought and imagination in programming.

the expanding nature of the Proms, which I am sure makes sense from a financial point of view, and to develop the "brand" ,does allow for interesting programming outside the core classical repertoire,which could be musically exciting, and commercially successful.
I really do fail to see how programming Paloma Faith at a late night Proms event fulfills any useful criteria. I don't include management box ticking in useful criteria. She has, and may well deserve, plenty of good platforms for her talent. Her audience isn"t struggling to find opportunities to see her, and she gets broadcast.
It really does smack of lazy or too opportunistic programming,to me.

Last year,I went to see the World Routes Prom, principally because I was planning to go to the main classical prom that night, and because I have a modest interest in world music.
It was a superb concert, in the main I think because it gave the artists the kind of platform they they really would struggle to find elsewhere,and because they were of high quality.
Now, it may have been lazy programming, ( of the " call the agent,see who they have") kind, but it didn't feel like it. It also had a connection with the radio programming that connected the event to the music,and so had a logic to it.

It is really surely not too much to ask for that kind of consistency, logic, imagination in programming? This years pop ( and some other?)offerings feel a lot too much like opportunities to combine ticket sales with fulfilling a box ticking management remit that sees R3 managers desperately trying to find a short cut to public funding approval.
No challenge, no thought, No creative programming, no point really.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As I've posted elsewhere I think it has to be accepted that the Proms are never going to be a strictly classical event...

Why does it have to be accepted? It's an increasingly slippery slope.

[french frank]

Why does it have to be accepted? It's an increasingly slippery slope.

And as I have posted elsewhere - it was the vision of the recently departed Director to expand the concerts with popular music performers. My own view is that the Proms should be trimmed. Smaller doesn't mean worse.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Smaller doesn't mean worse.

[french frank]

Twenty years ago (Drummond?) there were 68 concerts and the one 'light' one included J Strauss II, Suppé and Lehár. Ten years ago (Kenyon) there were 74, including the two weekend family ones which had some Beatles, Harry Potter, Boléro; one late night jazz concert; one Viennese + operetta night, one 'American' night Gershwin, I Berlin; and a very light Last Night. No modern pop (I think the Evening with Michael Ball was probably a Kenyon initiative, but that was another year).

This year seems to have been the most determined effort ever to include contemporary pop stars. I always felt Roger was a bit star-struck and liked to mingle with people from the pop world ...

[Old Grumpy]

I thought Paloma Faith (never heard her before) was OK, but far too much talking.

OG

[pureimagination]

Why does it have to be accepted? It's an increasingly slippery slope.

'Accepted' because I don't really see the organisers listening and as long as tickets sell (several sell-out concerts [as in all tickets sold!]) and the majority of proms 3/4 full I can't see things drastically changing. I don't know how many people buy Prom seasons (not me) and I don't know the statistics re: previous years and this year of attendance/listening/viewing figures etc but I would be interested to hear from anyone who does.
If the Proms season was shortened it would still probably contain a mixture of oft performed classic works, less heard yet classic works, pop/other genres etc (Oh how I hate this terminology) and we will still be posting next year how great/good/poor/cr*p such and such a prom was.
We all probably have our own fantasy proms in our heads and we've all probably seen/heard something/someone wonderful at this year's Proms that will stay with us for a very long time. I'm not calling for the status quo (don't go there!) but I don't see what influence we have despite the enthusiasm many have shown on this forum and elsewhere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

...but I don't see what influence we have despite the enthusiasm many have shown on this forum and elsewhere.

One thing is certain: if we don't say anything, we cannot have any influence. I think they do take notice of some of our ideas/suggestions.