So.... best Proms of the 2017 season?

[Nick Armstrong]

Some preferences have been expressed in various places - Petrushka's and mine copied below - but perhaps worth having a specific thread for exceptional performances to be highlighted all together (not least since many are still available on iPlayer and remain to be caught-up-with).

The best of the season were those concerts I attended (that Mahler 4 apart): the two Barenboim evenings; the COE/Haitink; Mahler 2 BBCSO/Oramo; Gurrelieder; Pittsburgh SO/Honeck; LPO/Jurowski and VPO/Harding Mahler 6.

My favourite Prom of the season: Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck, great evening that showed how to deliver a memorable Prom.

Worst performance of the season: RCO/Gatti in Bruckner 9. If you want to hear a second rate performance by a great orchestra with a conductor they clearly don't like then it's still there on I-player.

That magnificent Rachmaninov 2 from the BBCSSO under Daussgard; and the mercifully presenter-free TV broadcast of the András Schiff Bach recital - the two musical highlights of the season for me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Birtwistle's Deep Time and Musorgsky's Khovanshchina the highlights of the (generally good) season for me.

[arthroceph]

I thought the Israel in Egypt was great.

[Pulcinella]

The one I haven't got round to listening to yet, by all accounts: LPO/Jurowski.

[Alison]

Really enjoyed Houghy in Brahms and Mark Wigglesworth'sHaydn in that BBCPO Saturday nighter.

[Constantbee]

Certain performances stand out, but some serious anomalies with the programming spoilt it, eg putting Haydn after Hough playing Brahms didn't work for me.
26 - Liked the slow movement in the Sinfonia Concertante
42 - Enjoyed Roth and Les Siecles, mainly because I like Tiberghian and hadn't heard the Egyptian before.
53 - Beneath the Underdog was fun. if it had been The Voice UK chairs would have turned in our house.
71 - Ibragimova plays Prokofiev. Don't know her work that we'll but a music teacher friend recommended her playing on some Bach sonatas that morning. That's why I listened.
If the proms is about getting people like little me into classical music it's succeeded. Did I enjoy it? Not really. Seems to be turning into a bit of a political bun fight. I fear that will only get worse. At my age the Cadogan Hall type concert appeals more. In our region we have a couple of good music festivals in the summer but the venues are small and they sell out quickly. Can't afford to get to concerts in London at the moment. A lot of us up here live for the radio. Proms 2017 was made more enjoyable by having some company on the forum, for which thank you all very much.
See you around, I hope.

[DracoM]

72: VPO/Mahler 6th

[Nick Armstrong]

Really enjoyed Houghy in Brahms and Mark Wigglesworth's Haydn in that BBCPO Saturday nighter.

Oh yes! It was great.... one of the two I went to, as well!

[jonfan]

Sibelius Violin/ Barenboim Elgar; Mozart and Schumann Haitink; Rachmaninov piano 2 and Shostakovich 10 Sondergard;Beethoven 3 Aurora; Beethoven 9 Zhang; Handel Israel in Egypt Christie; Mozart Violin/Viola Frang/Power(esp the encore); Oklahoma; NYO concert; Rachmaninov Dausgard; Mahler 2 Oramo; Beethoven 5 G-T; Elgar-Payne Oramo; Nielsen 2 Oramo; Mendelssohn Freiburg; Mahler 1 Honeck; LPO Jurowski; Bach Schiff; Mahler 6 Harding.
It's been a fantastic season with surely something for all tastes, but the other has been the engineering. Long live Concert Sound Here's to having it permanent.

[AmpH]

Nicola Benedetti playing the first Shostakovich violin concerto with BBC NoW under Sondergard and Andras Schiff playing Bach were the clear standout performances for me in yet another generally dull and uninspiring season which was highlighted by the generally excellent BBC Concert Sound experiment.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks for this welcome distraction from Tom Service's sing- along - a - Enigma on at the moment

Highlight 1 , R3 Concert Sound - consistently stunning
2 PSO Mahler 1 - best Mahler playing of the season showing up some more illustrious colleagues ?
3. Resurrection Symphony -ditto (almost)
4. St John Passion - a profound experience
5. Gurrelieder - not consistently great singing but absolutely enthralling
6. WTC Andras Schiff - not every forumite agrees but a musical and intellectual triumph
7 . Oklahoma ditto (without the intellectual bit )

[jonfan]

Nicola Benedetti playing the first Shostakovich violin concerto with BBC NoW under Sondergard and Andras Schiff playing Bach were the clear standout performances for me in yet another generally dull and uninspiring season which was highlighted by the generally excellent BBC Concert Sound experiment.

I can't believe we've been listening to the same eight week season. Worth the licence fee at least twice over.

[AmpH]

I can't believe we've been listening to the same eight week season.

Precisely what I thought when I read most of your list.

[Pianorak]

Pavel Kolesnikov piano
PROM Lunchtime Chopin recital
Cadogan Hall, London

[jayne lee wilson]

A very patchy season for me, best-sounding but least musically interesting for many years especially in the 2nd half, a frustrating combination. I was personally unlucky in the repertoire choices running against current interests, or deadened by overfamiliarity...

Favourite complete Proms:

Prom 1: great Beethoven 3rd concerto and lovely Adams' Harmonielehre. BBCSO/Oramo/Levit.
Prom 5: for the clearheaded Sibelius 7 and DSCH 10. BBCNOW/Söndergard.
Prom 20: Brahms Concerto 1, Sawyer, Haydn 99. BBCSO/Hough Wigglesworth, perhaps my No.1 all season, musically and sonically.
Prom 24; especially the terrific Adams' Naive & Sentimental Music. Loud & clear from Philharmonia/Salonen.
Prom 26: Tüür, Mozart k364 and Brahms 2nd (surprised at so little response to this one). Startlingly recreative interpretations from Paavo Jarvi & soloists etc..
Prom 40: Brahms, Berg, Schumann 3. Chamber-musical warmth & freshness from Tetzlaff/SCO/Ticciati.
Prom 42: French Pops. Sparkling Siècles/Roth fun.
Prom 67: Mendelssohn 5th & Violin Concerto, self-renewingly vital (as per the recording) from Faust, Freiburg Baroque & Heras-Casado.
Prom 70: Mazzoli, Bartok 2nd Concerto, Dvorak 8. Dazzling, revitalising conducting from the debutante, Canellakis.

"Themed" proms like the "Bohemian Reformation" effort always put me off; e.g. the epic journey of Smetana's Ma Vast is best heard complete, only Vltava and Wood & Fields really work on their own. Excerpting Tabor & Blanik misrepresents them, and the complete work, badly.

Again, some fine individual performances like Oramo's Nielsen 2 were spoilt for me by inclusion in an uninspiring mixed-bag (A "traditional" program with say, Helios, the Cockerels' Dance & the Violin Concerto would have been much better here).
Likewise, I enjoyed the CBSO/MGT/Faust Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Oramo's Sibelius Scènes Historiques, BSO/Karabits' Beethoven 1st, Hillborg's Sirens from BBCSO/Gaffigan, Turnage's Hibiki....and the VW9 with John Wilson/BBCSSO - which keenly renewed my interest in the work.