Proms in the Past

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  • underthecountertenor
    Full Member
    • Apr 2011
    • 1584

    #16
    Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
    But isn't that true of any such post/conversation - some people will strongly agree with an opinion, others strongly disagree; the majority not really fussed either way?

    A pity you've lost your rose-tinted specs - the replacements you can get these days just aren't up to the standards they used to be.
    I'm thinking of going for a Regiemask (TM) by way of replacement.

    Coincidentally, last night's concert programming (Ich Habe Genug, Bruckner 9) seemed in some ways reminiscent of those 1970 programmes. But the programme had clearly been chosen by the single group performing (rather than at the whim of Glock), and the juxtaposition seemed 'right', for a number of reasons (Bach and Bruckner, God, farewell to life). I may very well be missing something, but I still can't see the sense of D898 + Tristan Act III or four Byrd motets + Gerontius.

    Comment

    • ChrisBennell
      Full Member
      • Sep 2014
      • 171

      #17
      The sheer length of programmes in the 50s and 60s was amazing. Take this (the first prom I ever attended) on 29 August 1956 - Halle orchestra - Basil Cameron stood in for Barbirolli who was indisposed. We certainly got value for money in those days.

      Trumpet Voluntary - arr Henry Wood
      Schubert - Symphony No 5
      Delius - Idyll for Soprano baritone and orchestra
      Vaughan Williams - Symphony No 8
      Interval
      Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

      Comment

      • pastoralguy
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 7739

        #18
        Originally posted by ChrisBennell View Post
        The sheer length of programmes in the 50s and 60s was amazing. Take this (the first prom I ever attended) on 29 August 1956 - Halle orchestra - Basil Cameron stood in for Barbirolli who was indisposed. We certainly got value for money in those days.

        Trumpet Voluntary - arr Henry Wood
        Schubert - Symphony No 5
        Delius - Idyll for Soprano baritone and orchestra
        Vaughan Williams - Symphony No 8
        Interval
        Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
        That is a big programme!

        Comment

        • underthecountertenor
          Full Member
          • Apr 2011
          • 1584

          #19
          Originally posted by ChrisBennell View Post
          The sheer length of programmes in the 50s and 60s was amazing. Take this (the first prom I ever attended) on 29 August 1956 - Halle orchestra - Basil Cameron stood in for Barbirolli who was indisposed. We certainly got value for money in those days.

          Trumpet Voluntary - arr Henry Wood
          Schubert - Symphony No 5
          Delius - Idyll for Soprano baritone and orchestra
          Vaughan Williams - Symphony No 8
          Interval
          Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
          I make that just over 2 hours of music, not allowing for breaks for orchestral manoeuvres and the interval (and assuming a brisk enough Schubert 5). So out about 10.10? If that was a typical length, it must have made life pretty difficult for those living outside central London!

          Comment

          • ChrisBennell
            Full Member
            • Sep 2014
            • 171

            #20
            Originally posted by underthecountertenor View Post
            I make that just over 2 hours of music, not allowing for breaks for orchestral manoeuvres and the interval (and assuming a brisk enough Schubert 5). So out about 10.10? If that was a typical length, it must have made life pretty difficult for those living outside central London!
            Yes that was pretty typical - 7.30 start and out sometime after 10. Very hard on the players too. RVW was in the audience, and managed his way onto the platform, for the applause. Not sure if he stayed for the Bartok!

            Another example from the following year: 16August57 BBC SO - Sargent / Hollingsworth (so at least Sargent didn't have to do it all!)

            Beethoven - Leonora No 3
            Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 4
            Beethoven - Symphony No 4
            Interval
            William Alwyn - Symphony No 3

            William Alwyn was there for that one too! Those were the days. Not quite everything was broadcast, though, as I remember it. There were occasional gaps, but the BBC Home Service (R4) did some, as well as the Third Programme (R3).

            Comment

            • oddoneout
              Full Member
              • Nov 2015
              • 9145

              #21
              Originally posted by underthecountertenor View Post
              I'm thinking of going for a Regiemask (TM) by way of replacement.

              Coincidentally, last night's concert programming (Ich Habe Genug, Bruckner 9) seemed in some ways reminiscent of those 1970 programmes. But the programme had clearly been chosen by the single group performing (rather than at the whim of Glock), and the juxtaposition seemed 'right', for a number of reasons (Bach and Bruckner, God, farewell to life). I may very well be missing something, but I still can't see the sense of D898 + Tristan Act III or four Byrd motets + Gerontius.
              Using the same reasoning as the Bach/Bruckner link posited could something similar not apply to the Byrd/Gerontius coupling? At least in terms of subject matter.

              Comment

              • underthecountertenor
                Full Member
                • Apr 2011
                • 1584

                #22
                Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
                Using the same reasoning as the Bach/Bruckner link posited could something similar not apply to the Byrd/Gerontius coupling? At least in terms of subject matter.
                I did consider that, oddeoneout. Perhaps with Vide, Domine, Afflictionem Nostrum, and more tenuously Ave Verum Corpus. But Laudate Pueri and Haec Dies? Very different. The overall impression I get is that Cantores Ecclesia were available that night and selected 4 Byrd motets with no regard for what followed. I may of course be wrong, but the programme doesn't look thought-through to me.

                Comment

                • underthecountertenor
                  Full Member
                  • Apr 2011
                  • 1584

                  #23
                  Having said which, all thoughts of the preceding Byrd would surely in any event have been swept away for the radio listener by the interval talk, viz:

                  * The Booming South-East

                  NICHOLAS TAYLOR in conversation with GERALD SMART. County Planning Officer of Hampshire, and PROFESSOR PETER HALL , a member of the South-East Economic Planning Council.
                  The Government's Strategic Plan for the South-East has just been published - the latest in a long line of official attempts to rationalise the rapid growth outwards from London. It rejects the idea of any final answer to the problems of the region, but poses various alternative frameworks for the future.

                  Comment

                  • seabright
                    Full Member
                    • Jan 2013
                    • 625

                    #24
                    Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
                    I attended a Prom, a long way back, late 60s perhaps, and I distinctly remember that the programme c/w Beethoven's 9th, was Mozart's work that has that alleluia at the end (what's it called?), but Erich Leinsdorf conducted. What a pity I wasn't old enough to fully appreciate the occasion. Now who were the singers that night? anyone?
                    From the BBC Archive page:

                    Richard Wagner
                    Tristan and Isolde
                    Prelude (with Wagner's concert-ending) Act 1

                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
                    Vesperae solennes de confessore, K 339

                    Ludwig van Beethoven
                    Symphony No 9 in D minor, 'Choral'

                    Robert Tear tenor
                    Anne Howells mezzo-soprano
                    Siv Wennberg soprano
                    Hans Sotin bass
                    BBC Singers
                    BBC Symphony Chorus
                    BBC Symphony Orchestra
                    Erich Leinsdorf Conductor

                    15 September 1972

                    Comment

                    • oddoneout
                      Full Member
                      • Nov 2015
                      • 9145

                      #25
                      Originally posted by underthecountertenor View Post
                      Having said which, all thoughts of the preceding Byrd would surely in any event have been swept away for the radio listener by the interval talk, viz:

                      * The Booming South-East

                      NICHOLAS TAYLOR in conversation with GERALD SMART. County Planning Officer of Hampshire, and PROFESSOR PETER HALL , a member of the South-East Economic Planning Council.
                      The Government's Strategic Plan for the South-East has just been published - the latest in a long line of official attempts to rationalise the rapid growth outwards from London. It rejects the idea of any final answer to the problems of the region, but poses various alternative frameworks for the future.

                      Well that would seem to provide a suitable degree of separation to offset the less than ideal programming!

                      Comment

                      • underthecountertenor
                        Full Member
                        • Apr 2011
                        • 1584

                        #26
                        Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
                        Well that would seem to provide a suitable degree of separation to offset the less than ideal programming!
                        Yes, and no doubt when Gerontius sang his opening words, 'Jesu, Maria, I am near to death,' the listening audience were moved to mutter 'you and me both mate, after that'.

                        Comment

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