Prom 75: 10.09.16 - Last Night of the Proms

[doversoul1]

I admit that I only managed to stay for a few minutes but what I definitely did not get was any kind of sense of fun. To me, the choir looked and sounded so serious that they almost sounded (and looked) scared. Ah well, maybe I should train myself to watch and listen to something other than Vox Luminis and Stile Antico. My loss.

[Prommer]

I think the Borodin PDs are a great romp And maybe we shouldn't be too picky about the singing. As long as they sang KHAN when the cymbal clashed, isn't that all that mattered? Seriously though, how all the rehearsals for all the Proms are managed I really can't imagine. I doubt that particular item had more than a few minutes devoted to it in the RAH.

I was perhaps being uncharitable but it is the most appalling cacophony to me. Carmina Burana!

[Barbirollians]

Quite right. I'm puzzled by the sudden outbreak of Borodin-Rage. I loved them when I was a kid and still do (as ageing kid).

I do not dislike them but I found that a pretty coarse rendition of them .

[Flosshilde]

Yup, Bradley Walsh [ hugely under-rated actor] and 'Beck' infinitely preferable!!
Saw about ten minutes of LNOTP - simply awful, awful, awful.

I'm sure that it was comforting to have your prejudices confirmed. Almost as good as a cup of cocoa.

[Beef Oven!]

What's not to like about the Polotsvian Dances? As ardcarp says they are a great romp and much of it foreshadows Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

[jonfan]

Yup, Bradley Walsh [ hugely under-rated actor] and 'Beck' infinitely preferable!!
Saw about ten minutes of LNOTP - simply awful, awful, awful.

This is not worthy of you Draco. You are rightly very keen that when we are posting on the Choir board we are mindful to be aware when commenting on the performance of young people and young professionals. Obviously not here as the first ten minutes was the Proms Youth Ensemble.

[french frank]

The BBC Proms? what is it? A bastardised version of what Henry Wood Created

This was what Sir Henry Wood's First Last Night Prom looked like. A bastardised version of what it was later to become?

[jean]

Thanks for that!

If you look at any nineteenth-century concert programmes which aren't filled by single long works, they tend to contain a surprising amount of music that could only be described as not serious.

[ahinton]

Thanks for that!

If you look at any nineteenth-century concert programmes which aren't filled by single long works, they tend to contain a surprising amount of music that could only be described as not serious.

Wrong thread, jean?(!)...

[greenilex]

I'm sure G and S knew they were working seriously hard to entertain us all. Thanks to all involved with this year's Proms, and there's a good chance I'll be listening on Bastille Day next year, when I shall hit 73.

[PhilipT]

Make that under 60 the front row look in their 70s !

I was in the front row, and I'm still nearer 50 than 60. I rise above trading insults.

I do know what you mean, though. There are a lot of regulars who can spare the time to queue because they are retired, and it's been a while since I met an undergraduate with a season ticket - I put it down to the pressure there is nowadays to bulk up the CV with internships. I did at one point explain the finer points of queuing for the Last Night to a couple who must be in their 20s who got places in the second row, so it's not all gloom, but the trend has been all one way for too long.

[BBMmk2]

Prommers are getting older but I think PhilipT is right. The modern ways of college life, with all that pressure. shame really, but hopefully we will see them in the audience in due course.

[Barbirollians]

Outrageous as I am sure it would be regarded as being by some but I think it is time to address the London centric nature of the Proms . I would hand out half the Prommer places on the last night to under 21s and sell them across the country .

[jean]

Good idea but why restrict it to the last night?

And would you include overnight accommodation?

[seabright]

And I well recall one of the few LNOTPs that ever I watched/listened to part of that included the most hilarious imaginable (although also very good) performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto conducted rather uneasily by the otherwise excellent Tod Handley with the solo part played with almost side-splitting conscientiousness by the late and deeply lamented Shura Cherkassky; ah, those were the days!

You're right about Handley's uneasiness ... surely a classic case of miscasting? ... Click the link! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WUPvp5q2tg

Incidentally, does anyone know how the BBC powers-that-be feel about their programmes being uploaded off the telly and on to You Tube by anyone who cares to do so? Someone in the record business once told me that because the Proms, for example, are bought and paid for out of the licence fee, the Beeb isn't losing out financially anyway. He also thought that You Tube viewers might see for themselves how unstuffy the Proms are and be inclined to go along in person. This would make the various Proms uploads "free advertising" rather than "breaches of copyright," so if they help to sell tickets then I imagine the BBC is quite content to allow them!

However, going back to Handley & Cherkassky, where else would we see that Gershwin Concerto today except on You Tube, so it has turned out to be a very important archiving site!