Rumours for 2016...

[french frank]

Let's not forget that the vast majority of the programme will have been put in place by the former Director of the Proms. It will be two or three years before his influence starts to become less prominent …

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Right!

- just when you so want to be proved wrong.

And I suppose the Milton Babbitt centenary is going to be as widely featured as the Lutyens one was in 2005 (with as many performances in the season as you could count on the fingers of one foot)?

[Pulcinella]

- just when you so want to be proved wrong.

And I suppose the Milton Babbitt centenary is going to be as widely featured as the Lutyens one was in 2005 (with as many performances in the season as you could count on the fingers of one foot)?

Right again!

And two rights don't necessarily make a wrong!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Right again!
And two rights don't necessarily make a wrong!

A very great wrong is being perpetrated here, Pulcie.

[Pulcinella]

A very great wrong is being perpetrated here, Pulcie.

Not me 'breaking' the embargo, I hope?
Not my fault that my local bookstore sold me a copy of the guide.
In my dim and distant past (holiday jobs working for the Inland Revenue, as it was in those days) I signed the Official Secrets Act in some form or other, but I don't think leaking Proms details was covered!

[french frank]

In my dim and distant past (holiday jobs working for the Inland Revenue, as it was in those days) I signed the Official Secrets Act in some form or other, but I don't think leaking Proms details was covered!

I think perhaps we shouldn't be TOO forthcoming (as in, 'Tell all').

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not me 'breaking' the embargo, I hope?

Ooh, no! I was referring entirely to the absence of Babbitt from the Proms season in his centenary year (or from any BBC broadcast so far this year).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And to think that I predicted the "Strictly" Prom last year!!! Why don't they listen to my proper suggestions???!!!

[teamsaint]

And to think that I predicted the "Strictly" Prom last year!!! Why don't they listen to my proper suggestions???!!!

Ferney,Perhaps you should try some improper suggestions ,and see how that works out instead.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ferney,Perhaps you should try some improper suggestions ,and see how that works out instead.

Oh, no - the judge was very clear in his summing up!

[Nick Armstrong]

the "Strictly" Prom !!

That very concept* occurred to me earlier today as I read Pulcinella's posts (which had a cloak-and-dagger certainty about them, the reason for which is now clear! )




PS:




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*Not quite true actually - the vague thought I had involved "Dancing on Ice" - I always did confuse the sequined terpsichorean televisual offerings, all of which I've successfully managed to miss... But it was La Derham's show I meant. Did she win, I can't remember?

[EdgeleyRob]

So the rumour that the programme would be pretty much same old,same old........is it true ?

[french frank]

Did she win, I can't remember?

No - I think she trod on her own foot and hurt herself.

[Pulcinella]

So the rumour that the programme would be pretty much same old,same old........is it true ?

I happen to think not, but you will have your own opinion!
I hope that you are pleasantly surprised.

[bluestateprommer]

So, collating most of the legwork into a single post, as to what's in this summer's roster of Proms, it looks like this, so far:

7/15/16: The First Night; BBC SO & Chorus / Oramo (presumably), program includes Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky
7/22/16 (?): Prom 8 - Strictly Come Dancing Prom
7/23/16 & 7/24/16: 'Ten Pieces' Proms (BBC Phil, Alpesh Chauhan)
7/30/16: Berlioz - Romeo et Juliette; ORR / JEG / Monteverdi Choir
8/6/16: NYOGB / young ladies of the NYCGB (??) / Edward Gardner; Iris Ter Shiphorst / Richard Strauss / Holst
8/14/16: BBC SO / Oramo, Guy Johnston (cello), program includes world premiere of Charlotte Bray's Cello Concerto
8/19/16: Janacek - Věc Makropulos; BBC SO / Jiri Belohlavek, cast includes Karita Mattila
8/20/16: Proms Saturday Matinee; London Sinfonietta / Andrew Gourlay, program includes Georg Friedrich Haas' Open Spaces II - In memory of James Tenney
8/29/16: LGO / Blomstedt / Andras Schiff; all-Beethoven Prom
9/4/16: Rossini - Semiramide (complete), OAE / Sir Mark Elder, cast includes Albina Shagimuratova, Daniela Barcellona, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Javier Camarena
9/7/16: Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann / Daniil Trifonov; Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 / Bruckner - Symphony No. 3 (1877 version)
9/8/16: Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann / Nikolaj Znaider; Beethoven - Violin Concerto / Reger - Mozart Variations / Richard Strauss - Till Eulenspiegel

Undetermined dates:
WEDO / Barenboim (sometime in August)
Glyndebourne Prom: The Barber of Seville
Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder; BBC SSO / Runnicles
Vadim Gluzman / BBC SO: program includes UK premiere of Lera Auerbach work for violin, chorus & orchestra

Either Pulcinella or IGI can mark 'correct' (C) or not (I), if either so wishes. Other relatively easy-to-predict / hope for items might include:

* Another appearance by the John Wilson Orchestra
* A Prom with Bernard Haitink (his 50th anniversary year at The Proms, as with Barenboim)

From the above sampler, it's actually looking pretty promising. I'm sure there'll be more than enough of the usual standard repertoire, but such is life.

Plus, people here seem to live in a fantasy-world where R3 can run The Proms in a financially secure bubble separate from any connection to the rest of the BBC, where there is no obligation to work together with other units of the BBC. Or indeed, a fantasy-world where the Oliver Knussen Prom sells out every year, and not even 1500 people would even think of going to either an Ibiza-themed Prom or a Strictly Come Dancing Prom. It barely needs stating that the current state of things is the exact opposite of the last sentence in particular. For several years now, just as another example, just about every time that there's an all-British Prom that's a really good program (e.g. Sinaisky leading Moeran's Symphony and Elgar 2 in the same night in 2009, or the Ivor Gurney War Elegy / Sally Beamish The Singing / Walton 1 Prom in 2014), it gets lots of nods of approval here, and rightly so, but unfortunately, from various reviews, the RAH is, at best, 1/2 to maybe 3/5 full. If you want to know why you don't get more George Lloyd / Jonathan Lloyd / Brian Ferneyhough / fill in your favorite name, there is your answer, I'm afraid. Not enough people show up at those Proms each year to let the BBC and the Proms management know that those higher-end programs are worth it to them, year after year. When you guys can gin up enough audience to break 50% tickets sold for the Olly Prom, year after year, that will be progress.

(Of course, it would also help if you guys elected a Parliament that isn't hostile to the idea of the common good, or that is willing to renew the BBC's charter with a modest increase to the license fee, even by a piddling amount like £1-£2, so that the BBC isn't forced to try to do more and more with less and less. Sadly, we have the same problem in the USA, with too many 'red' states electing misogynist and homophobic legislatures and governors, promoting appalling legislation in turn. But I digress.)

Anyway, I suppose all will be revealed for the rest of us w/o an advance copy of the 2016 Proms Guide in a little over 2 days time. But one nice thing to see off Amazon.co.uk's stats is that the 2016 BBC Proms Guide ranks at #98 in overall book sales ranking. Not bad.