I've filled in the Forum Calendar entries for this summer's Proms, and also the 15 Edinburgh Festival concerts from the Queen's Hall that will be broadcast on R3 in August. Anyone interested in taking a look can obviously jump ahead on the calendar. For the most part, I've settled on a general formula, so the style is generally the same as in past years. Getting more granular, regarding the Proms:
1. Some details are obviously missing, like the full program details for Proms 8, 11/12, 15, 19, 27, 47, 53, 55 and 65, PCM 3, and the Proms at...Tate Modern concert, as well as the cast for Oklahoma!. I presume that an actor will portray Sir Henry Wood for the Family Proms (11/12), so I put "Actor TBA" there. Likewise, a narrator for Lincoln Portrait is missing at this time. Of course, those details will emerge as the time gets closer to the particular Prom in question, or perhaps just before the season starts.
2. Hyperlinks: I've included those to pages from both the BBC Proms site and the RAH's site. I've not yet added links to the actual venues for the Proms at.... series, as those are not yet live. I may add those as the time gets closer, or when I find that such links are live. I've put a hyperlink to the same general TV schedule for those Proms which will be broadcast on TV. (Not sure if I want to get really detailed and actually find the on-line links from the BBC Four, BBC One, and BBC Two pages later; there's a thought.)
3. I've added "Proms debut artist" and "Proms debut ensemble" where appropriate, from cross-checking the Proms performance archive. Relatively few such additions are present, but there is one very notable surprise among them. (I'll let you guys search for it, for those who don't already have the hard copy volume.)
4. Likewise, I've added "first performance at The Proms" where appropriate. (One is a very interesting surprise, given that particular Prom, which tends to get a lot of attention, to put it one way.) Where a work is receiving its world/European/UK/London premiere, then it's obviously implied that it's a Proms first performance as well.
5. For a very few Proms, I've created my own unofficial title that obviously has no sanction from the BBC or the RAH. Thus Prom 37 is "Rachmaninov Night" and Prom 67 is "Mendelssohn Matinee". For the John Williams Prom, Prom 8, I mashed up the BBC Proms and RAH titles into a single title.
6. In general, as usual, a blank line in the concert program indicates the interval. A few concerts don't observe this "blank line rule", e.g. PCM 1, since in those cases, it's more visually pleasing to break up the listings by individual composer. (I still choose to omit running times for works, again my own personal quirk.)
Regarding Edinburgh:
* All but one of the concerts are live for relay on R3. The odd one out is the Gringolts Quartet, with the concert on August 12, but the relay on August 23.
* The first of these R3 EIF relays, the August 5 Dunedin Consort performance, is actually on a Saturday. Given last year, where one Saturday concert was originally announced as live, but ended up being delayed-broadcast during the work week, my guess is that the same thing will happen here.
* Likewise, as in the past, I've guessed the interval for the EIF concerts, since the EIF programs don't clearly indicate them. (Probably 1/3 of the guesses are incorrect.)
Of course, last-minute changes will occur, as inevitably they do, and my own format and stylistic idiosyncracies have probably introduced other mistakes. I'll continue to refine details as the season gets closer.
(It would be curious, for anyone with too much spare time, to do the Google Analytics to see how much traffic the Forum Calendar gets during the Proms season. My guess is not much, certainly compared with the BBC Proms' own page.)
1. Some details are obviously missing, like the full program details for Proms 8, 11/12, 15, 19, 27, 47, 53, 55 and 65, PCM 3, and the Proms at...Tate Modern concert, as well as the cast for Oklahoma!. I presume that an actor will portray Sir Henry Wood for the Family Proms (11/12), so I put "Actor TBA" there. Likewise, a narrator for Lincoln Portrait is missing at this time. Of course, those details will emerge as the time gets closer to the particular Prom in question, or perhaps just before the season starts.
2. Hyperlinks: I've included those to pages from both the BBC Proms site and the RAH's site. I've not yet added links to the actual venues for the Proms at.... series, as those are not yet live. I may add those as the time gets closer, or when I find that such links are live. I've put a hyperlink to the same general TV schedule for those Proms which will be broadcast on TV. (Not sure if I want to get really detailed and actually find the on-line links from the BBC Four, BBC One, and BBC Two pages later; there's a thought.)
3. I've added "Proms debut artist" and "Proms debut ensemble" where appropriate, from cross-checking the Proms performance archive. Relatively few such additions are present, but there is one very notable surprise among them. (I'll let you guys search for it, for those who don't already have the hard copy volume.)
4. Likewise, I've added "first performance at The Proms" where appropriate. (One is a very interesting surprise, given that particular Prom, which tends to get a lot of attention, to put it one way.) Where a work is receiving its world/European/UK/London premiere, then it's obviously implied that it's a Proms first performance as well.
5. For a very few Proms, I've created my own unofficial title that obviously has no sanction from the BBC or the RAH. Thus Prom 37 is "Rachmaninov Night" and Prom 67 is "Mendelssohn Matinee". For the John Williams Prom, Prom 8, I mashed up the BBC Proms and RAH titles into a single title.
6. In general, as usual, a blank line in the concert program indicates the interval. A few concerts don't observe this "blank line rule", e.g. PCM 1, since in those cases, it's more visually pleasing to break up the listings by individual composer. (I still choose to omit running times for works, again my own personal quirk.)
Regarding Edinburgh:
* All but one of the concerts are live for relay on R3. The odd one out is the Gringolts Quartet, with the concert on August 12, but the relay on August 23.
* The first of these R3 EIF relays, the August 5 Dunedin Consort performance, is actually on a Saturday. Given last year, where one Saturday concert was originally announced as live, but ended up being delayed-broadcast during the work week, my guess is that the same thing will happen here.
* Likewise, as in the past, I've guessed the interval for the EIF concerts, since the EIF programs don't clearly indicate them. (Probably 1/3 of the guesses are incorrect.)
Of course, last-minute changes will occur, as inevitably they do, and my own format and stylistic idiosyncracies have probably introduced other mistakes. I'll continue to refine details as the season gets closer.
(It would be curious, for anyone with too much spare time, to do the Google Analytics to see how much traffic the Forum Calendar gets during the Proms season. My guess is not much, certainly compared with the BBC Proms' own page.)
.
- it sounds like an excellent idea. I was just looking back at the BBC archive to check something which occurred to me regarding the 'Great encores' thread. Still have to rely on memory (in this case after 17 years) for the actual encore.
Comment