The 2016 Proms Season: what are your thoughts?

[MrGongGong]

Music probably can't be defined in the first place, so when we consider a subgroup like 'music that has no business in being in the Proms', it's even harder, perhaps impossible. .

Oh I don't know about that
how about this ?

(lets see how long it stays here )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxG3ymF5Mbk

[MrGongGong]

The argument that if a new audience is made to feel part of the Proms that will encourage them to discover other kinds of music like [name of 'classical composer' here] seems to me absurd. Why would it? What percentage would book for a more traditional Prom? Has the effectiveness of such a cunning plan been monitored?

I think one problem with your point here is that it assumes that people listen to music based on the same genre boxes that it is sold in.
Many of the folks I meet don't (thank goodness) always make the assumption that music is somehow really divided up like this and are as likely to go to hear a Jazz gig as they are to go and listen to Bruckner or a rock band....

"Classical Music" is fine, it's audience aren't dying out and it doesn't need emergency attention only inspired work from people who are able to communicate to a wide audience.

[pastoralguy]

Alas, no George Lloyd.

[EdgeleyRob]

Alas, no George Lloyd.

Just waiting for one of us to win the lottery pg,then we will put on a whole cycle.

[french frank]

The implication being that 'so long as it's not a concert devoted exclusively to that music', it would be ok. I'm reminded of all the clucking we had last year when the five Prokofiev piano concertos were programmed in one night.

Pretty much. A Prom, such as the 'Starter Proms' might well have a mix of what the new audience would find familiar - but the quid pro quo for including pop music would be that there should also be music more characteristic of what the Proms provide. The Ibiza prom didn't have that. The Urban Classic Prom had a miserable 7 minutes of 'non-Urban' music but that was completely cut out of the televised recording - where the largest audience would be. Who's doing the ring-fencing here, setting up the barriers?

You might think it absurd, but many people believe, based on real experiences, that classical music in the last fifty years or so has cultural/class barriers. One way of testing these barriers is offer more populist fare as well as the esoteric. It's rational, rather than cunning.

That was - more or less - what I was saying. The objection is about concerts that offer the 'populist' without the 'esoteric'.

[Flosshilde]

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[ahinton]

Just waiting for one of us to win the lottery pg,then we will put on a whole cycle.

Cycles can be dangerous; look what happened to Chausson (whose symphony deserves more Prom outings that it gets).

[Norrette]

Expensive.

Have put 4 in the planner
The Norrington Beethoven Brahms,
The Gustav Mahler youth with Bach & Bruckner and
the Rattle Berlin with Dvorak & Brahms.
Barenboim Mozart & Bruckner

Might just do the Rattle (maybe the Barenboim). 180 plus quid for 4 side-stall seats is getting past a joke. All those extras added on.

[Bryn]

Expensive.

Have put 4 in the planner
The Norrington Beethoven Brahms,
The Gustav Mahler youth with Bach & Bruckner and
the Rattle Berlin with Dvorak & Brahms.
Barenboim Mozart & Bruckner

Might just do the Rattle (maybe the Barenboim). 180 plus quid for 4 side-stall seats is getting past a joke. All those extras added on.

Only £24 is you stand up and take 'em like a mensch.

[teamsaint]

£45 for a best seat is pretty much the norm, I would have thought.

" Signature" seats for regular RFH concerts are up to £60.

[Norrette]

Within the context of a classical music festival, a more appropriate tribute to David Bowie would surely have been either or both of the symphonies by Philip Glass based on Bowie's Heroes and Low albums (2 of Bowie's best IMO).

Just what I was thinking...

[Norrette]

Only £24 is you stand up and take 'em like a mensch.

I even stopped being a groundling last year.

[Petrushka]

Expensive.

Have put 4 in the planner
The Norrington Beethoven Brahms,
The Gustav Mahler youth with Bach & Bruckner and
the Rattle Berlin with Dvorak & Brahms.
Barenboim Mozart & Bruckner

Might just do the Rattle (maybe the Barenboim). 180 plus quid for 4 side-stall seats is getting past a joke. All those extras added on.

Going by past seasons my usual allocation of around 13 Proms has worked out at around £350 which is acceptable. I've put 10 Proms on to my Planner and it already comes to £538. While most of them are in the highest price bands (side stalls) I find this excessive. I might well cut two of the lesser ones out and Prom for them. After a day of walking round London in, one hopes, sweltering temperatures, the last thing I want to do is stand up for a couple of hours.

I fail to see how the RAH box office can justify charging a booking fee and a payment administration fee. Punters are being ripped off and these absurd practises should cease.

[Norrette]

I fail to see how the RAH box office can justify charging a booking fee and a payment administration fee. Punters are being ripped off and these absurd practises should cease.

Especially as we are doing all the work for them on May 7th...:rolleyes:

[ucanseetheend]

Going by past seasons my usual allocation of around 13 Proms has worked out at around £350 which is acceptable. I've put 10 Proms on to my Planner and it already comes to £538. While most of them are in the highest price bands (side stalls) I find this excessive. I might well cut two of the lesser ones out and Prom for them. After a day of walking round London in, one hopes, sweltering temperatures, the last thing I want to do is stand up for a couple of hours.

I fail to see how the RAH box office can justify charging a booking fee and a payment administration fee. Punters are being ripped off and these absurd practises should cease.

Practises cease? No chance. If anything adds will increase. Proms not the "people concerts" Its mirroring South Bank prices