Proms 2015: Today's the day

[Petrushka]

There are about the usual nine or ten concerts I'll be going to but as Prommer says above 'vast swathes of dullness' elsewhere. It's good to see US orchestras back at the Proms after several years absence and I do like the look of the Boston SO and the first San Francisco SO programmes. Jurowski's LPO concert looks a cracker while any opportunity to see Bernard Haitink just has to be taken. The VPO concerts are mandatory as far as I am concerned.

Two, rather than three, cheers from me on the whole and I do wish that the Proms planners would ignore all anniversaries and just create good programmes.

[Flay]

Sadly the Ibiza prom is not to be at the Albert Hall. I was hoping to see Alison Balsom doing the lambada while playing Livin' la Vida Loca on a pink plastic trumpet.

<sigh> Maybe next year...

[Demetrius]

If that is the case, then it is shameful, in a commemorative year.

Actually, I think he does ok, really.
10 Pieces altogether (maybe more in the Chamber Music / Matinee Proms, haven't looked at them yet)
Flute Concerto, Violin Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, 2nd Symphony and a few pieces I haven't heared of.
They resisted the temptation to unleash the 4th Symphony on us and instead went for the lesser known, which is by no means the worst decision they (not sure who actually put this one together) could have made.

As for ignoring the anniversaries: they are one of the few chances to justify programming unknown/neglected pieces in the current warhorse-loving world. If audiences and programmers can lose their fixation on a small number of standard pieces, anniversaries wouldn't be necessary. As that won't happen any time soon, the anniversaries remain the hope of those who would like to see/hear something beyond Beethoven and Mahler. Not that it always works.

[Alain Maréchal]

I do wish that the Proms planners would ignore all anniversaries and just create good programmes.

They are not incompatible. How about all 6 Nielsen symphonies in one weekend? It can be done - I was there.

ps Demetrius: Espansiva would sound splendid in the RAH, the singers could go up in the gallery. If the 2nd is lesser known, then that is further condemnation of audience timidity; it and the 1st are the most approachable of all.

[Prommer]

...... so what's Schmidt Symphony 2 like ?

Well, it is a relatively lushly orchestrated piece, with Schubertian and Bruckerian echoes and cadences, but it manages also to push on to and suggest modernity too. One or two memorable phrases. The students of the RAM under Bychkov clearly relished it, and Bychkov has been championing it all over Europe in the last year or so.

The pairing with Brahms 3 is also fascinating but I must listen again to it in order to unpick that!

[teamsaint]

there seems to be a lot of Stravinsky this year. Is there some reason i missed/ forgot about?

[Nick Armstrong]

Might turn up at the interval on 5 August for this

Elgar
Overture 'Froissart', Op 19 (15 mins)
Walton
Symphony No. 2 (30 mins)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Tadaaki Otaka conductor

Alas there is a soprano I find intolerable in the first half...

[teamsaint]

Might turn up at the interval on 5 August for this

Elgar
Overture 'Froissart', Op 19 (15 mins)
Walton
Symphony No. 2 (30 mins)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Tadaaki Otaka conductor

Alas there is a soprano I find intolerable in the first half...

You say " intolerable soprano"', I say, " another round of Spitfires, Bartender".

What a lovely colourful post that is, Cals.

[Nick Armstrong]

You say " intolerable soprano"', I say, " another round of Spitfires, Bartender".

What a lovely colourful post that is, Cals.

You make a number of good points, teams!

Bonsoir from Nantes, after a 550km yomp across France in the motor, in stunning warm, cloudless summer conditions! Thank heavens for aircon!!

[teamsaint]

You make a number of good points, teams!

Bonsoir from Nantes, after a 550km yomp across France in the motor, in stunning warm, cloudless summer conditions! Thank heavens for aircon!!

OH YES.
AIRCON IN CARS.

TOTAL GENIUS.

Hope the trip is good, Cals.
( rather nice here too. Wonder whats on at the french proms this year?)

[Barbirollians]

No Wagner - what a relief . Perhaps a little short on little known English music and music of the three farts and a raspberry school but much more interesting than the last few years .

[jayne lee wilson]

They are not incompatible. How about all 6 Nielsen symphonies in one weekend? It can be done - I was there.

ps Demetrius: Espansiva would sound splendid in the RAH, the singers could go up in the gallery. If the 2nd is lesser known, then that is further condemnation of audience timidity; it and the 1st are the most approachable of all.

This devoted Nielsonian agrees!
1 (actually a very catchy piece), and 2 would make an excellent concert together; the concertos can easily seem almost too subtle as part of a longer program, especially in a large acoustic space (the Clarinet Concerto looks, to say the least, misplaced after the Delius in prom 7); but playing all three in a late night Prom could work well...
Where's the ambition?

[Anastasius]

Thanks Barbirollians and Simon.

First quick skim before off to RSC to see The Jew of Malta and think I'll stay home this year. I agree Gerontius is appealing but ...

[Anastasius]

What do you know about it?
Brilliant performers and some interesting new pieces
which I bet you have never heard?

[Ed: Sorry - was getting in a muddle with the new forum :-) - ff]

I am intrigued and will try and listen to some of the composers you extol. But I wouldn't mind betting that they will sound like most recent stuff and I will last twenty bars.

[maestro267]

First, the positives:

First thing that grabbed me was the performance of all five Prokofiev piano concertos in a single concert. An epic undertaking for sure! Also, the concert that features some rare British works including Welsh composer Grace Williams, and Walton's 2nd Symphony. A couple of individual pieces within concerts I'm looking forward to include the premiere of MacMillan's 4th Symphony (proving the Symphony is alive and well), the Organ Concerto by Jon Leifs, Ives' 4th Symphony, and a bunch of others.

The negatives:

Having to endure a few Mozart concertos to get to the good stuff.

Only one Nielsen symphony. Sure, it'll be good to hear the concertos, but the symphonies are his most important and inventive works, and are in need of attention, especially from the Proms, who have very rarely programmed anything other than 4 and 5 before.

No Glazunov, in his 150th anniversary year. Maybe the music world still hasn't forgiven him for being the conductor of Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony. Which is a shame. Some very fine music among his output.