The 2016 Proms Season: what are your thoughts?

[vinteuil]

Ah, the German sense of humour!

Is Ach Hinton concealing some German ancestry? ...

[ahinton]

Ah, the German sense of humour!

Is Ach Hinton concealing some German ancestry? ...

Nein, mein Herr! Any such ancestry - IF any - is so well concealed as to have been invisible to this Scotsman personally throughout his lifetime.

Perhaps Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, had he been familiar with John Betjeman's Slough, might have thought to paraphrase its first two lines

"Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now"

as

"Some friendly bombs - not Proms - must fall
Upon the Royal Albert Hall"

I'll get me coat...

[Richard Barrett]

What is being suggested is that SOME of this repertoire SHOULD be regularly featured. At no point in the Glock years were the most recent ideas and developments completely boycotted year after year after year.

Right. 21st century music is nothing if not diverse; but this diversity simply isn't represented. Why not?

[Richard Barrett]

Not the same , of course, as hearing that music in a concert situation, with or without the bathroom effect of the RAH, and the huge exposure that a broadcast gives.

And guaranteed critical coverage, for what that's worth.

[teamsaint]

Right. 21st century music is nothing if not diverse; but this diversity simply isn't represented. Why not?

Because that isn't what it is about.
It is a BBC festival,with events that fit certain BBC remits, sadly.

The BBC is a powerful voice of the establishment.

From a certain perspective ,powerful music that makes people think and question needs careful control. little boxes are a big help in this process.

What we are offered is not diversity, but " Diversity".

[teamsaint]

And guaranteed critical coverage, for what that's worth.

Still worth a lot.
At least that is what the guys in our glamorous marketing dept tell me, and I'm sure they know.

[MrGongGong]

Right. 21st century music is nothing if not diverse; but this diversity simply isn't represented. Why not?

[Richard Barrett]

Because that isn't what it is about.
It is a BBC festival,with events that fit certain BBC remits, sadly.

The BBC is a powerful voice of the establishment.

From a certain perspective ,powerful music that makes people think and question needs careful control. little boxes are a big help in this process.

What we are offered is not diversity, but " Diversity".

Yes. Anyway I'm sure I've descended into a repetition of what I say every year so I'd better stop. If I were less of an optimist I guess I wouldn't be disappointed every time.

[teamsaint]

Does anybody know how the pre booked Promming tickets will work?
How many will there be?
Will there be yet another different queue?
Booking fees?

Not really sure what the point is,although I suppose it will make travelling less of a gamble for those travelling some distance, which has some benefit.
if that is one of the reasons,it seems a bit counter intuitive to put them on sale that morning, when people in that situation might need to be on the move. the previous night would be more sensible.
Thoughts?

[teamsaint]

Yes. Anyway I'm sure I've descended into a repetition of what I say every year so I'd better stop. If I were less of an optimist I guess I wouldn't be disappointed every time.

With the Proms, I do tend to be a bit " Glass half full", and try not to be disappointed, but to see the opportunities and the benefits. probably because I enjoy going.

But the missed opportunities make it hard not to be disappointed at times.

[Barbirollians]

Yeah, right. Lots of "Classical Music" programmes on BBC4, too.

I know little of many of the composers of new commissions this year. What is it that you find so objectionable about them ?

[Richard Barrett]

What is it that you find so objectionable about them ?

Not enough broken glass.

But seriously: nobody has said any of them are objectionable; several have said that they represent a very limited view of the music being composed now.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I know little of many of the composers of new commissions this year. What is it that you find so objectionable about them ?

Imagine that you're given an opportunity to travel in a Tardis back to King's Lynn in 1970 to hear Barbirolli conducting the Hallé in Elgar's First.
Now imagine that by a quirk in the Tardis controls, you end up with Maurice Handford conducting the Hallé in a Spohr Symphony instead.

There's nothing "objectionable" is there - a competent conductor, a decently composed orchestral work from the early Nineteenth Century, the same fine players - but it's not what you're hoping for. There will be competently composed works by Lindberg, Ter Schiphorst, Grimes, and Berkeley ... and I expect fine pieces from Payne and Anderson, and maybe even something better from De Leeuw.

But I prefer to be excited by what might be coming up, I want to be thrilled and in a state of "I can't wait to hear" this or that piece; I want horses to be scared. There's nothing doing that for me from the pieces by living composers in this year's Proms ... not one thing that's out of the ordinary. And that's a disservice to New Music when there is quite a lot of exciting stuff from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in this season. (There's also a disservice to older Music, too, this year. Again.)

[Petrushka]

I want horses to be scared. There's nothing doing that for me from the pieces by living composers in this year's Proms ... not one thing that's out of the ordinary.

But you haven't heard them yet! While the track record of the composers of the new commissions might lead you to expect certain things might a surprise not be sprung?

[Richard Barrett]

But you haven't heard them yet! While the track record of the composers of the new commissions might lead you to expect certain things might a surprise not be sprung?

I'm prepared to be proved wrong, but I wouldn't say that any of them look like the kind of composers who would use a Proms commission to do something the like of which they'd never done before, which is no doubt one reason for selecting them. Now I should really get off this thread!