Prom 74 - 8.09.17: Vienna Philharmonic – Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Please stick to the music, rather than politicians of any kind.

[vinteuil]

Please stick to the music, rather than politicians of any kind.

... and why be so reductive?

A concert experience isn't just the hearing of the notes : it's the quality of the ice-cream and the obscene prices of the drinks in the interval, the appalling dress-sense of those attending, the glory of the Albert Hall, wrong tho' it is in so many ways. And yes, the irritation occasioned by neighbours, and (sometimes) the glamour-by-association of people seen. All these things go to make up the concert experience as opposed to listening in comfort at home...




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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well - your previous posts were extremely interesting, but reference to politicians is likely to lead to discussion of their politics, and then we have an argument in conflict of house rules.

[Cockney Sparrow]

For reasons I needn't go into, I was listening on FM, and I must say the FM sound is really awful. So that didn't help. But I thought the first movement of the Beethoven was dull in the extreme. The symphony picked up after that - but Beethoven dull??? I was thinking back wistfully to Edinburgh a fortnight ago, where we heard a period-instrument performance of the Piano Trio Op 1 No 3 with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Jonathan Cohen. That was electric. We could have done with some of that electricity here.

One might be forgiven they are trying to encourage us to support the digital switch over - I do hope they never get to force us to jettison our battery efficient portable FM radios.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Well - your previous posts were extremely interesting, but reference to politicians is likely to lead to discussion of their politics, and then we have an argument in conflict of house rules.

Don't JA and DM unite opinion across the political spectrum and not by reason of their politics?

[Petrushka]

Don't JA and DM unite opinion across the political spectrum and not by reason of their politics?

Once found myself sitting next to Jeremy Thorpe at a Prom in 1995. Just sayin' ...

[pastoralguy]

Once found myself sitting next to Jeremy Thorpe at a Prom in 1995. Just sayin' ...

I sat two seats up from David Mellor at The Barbican when Sir Simon und Die Berliner Philharmoniker played Sibelius 5, 6 & 7! What charisma...

[Alison]

It's nearly New Years Day, Pasters!

[gurnemanz]

I sat two seats up from David Mellor at The Barbican when Sir Simon und Die Berliner Philharmoniker played Sibelius 5, 6 & 7! What charisma...

David Mellor was my urinal neighbour at the Barbican on one occasion.

[teamsaint]

David Mellor was my urinal neighbour at the Barbican on one occasion.

One of those government leaks we hear about ?..........

[Nick Armstrong]

David Mellor was my urinal neighbour at the Barbican on one occasion.

At the other end of the process , I was standing waiting to order drinks at the Barbican bar once, and realised that Gideon Osborne was standing next to me. He was then grasped from behind by a bloke who murmured "Chancellor" in his ear, in somewhat lascivious tones, it seemed to me. The bloke was Portillo.


ERRATUM: It was the National Theatre, not the Barbican

[Ein Heldenleben]

Hmm... Maybe time to enact the ban promised in post #46 ?

[Nick Armstrong]

Hmm... Maybe time to enact the ban promised in post #46 ?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, eh? We do seem to have strayed a long way from the Vienna Phil.... but it's Last Night night, feast of fools, anything goes, klaxons and whoopee cushions in the Arena &c., no?

[Simon B]

I thought I'd test the partisan nature, or otherwise, of this ban by sharing the thrilling news that I shared a small quantity of the RAH's volume with Jeremy Corbyn at the Mariinsky Prom last week.

I'm sure my reader (with due credit to, I think, Les Dawson among others) is gripped beyond measure at this news.

Perhaps he was just there at the behest of the BBC in an attempt to achieve neutrality by balancing out all those dodgy former Tories...

[Barbirollians]

I think Jezza is actually a classical buff unlike Blair before him .