Proms 2018

[Lat-Literal]

I've just picked up two very good seats for the RVW London symphony concert at the start of August. There are almost always either seats left, or returns for more popular concerts during the week before... (if you don't fancy the promming option teams has covered).

Isn't it 31 July?

I'm a bit confused.

What seats should I avoid if I don't stand?

I like a decent view but don't like heights indoors.

Want to throw caution to the winds and try to book this asap.

Perhaps now.

(Is it centre stalls?)

Thanks.

[Lat-Literal]

OMG....I think I have just booked it.

[Lat-Literal]

Caliban - I'm not looking to meet up or anything so don't worry about that but is H stalls, 3rd row, ok because that looks like what I've arranged?

God knows how I am going to manage the journey - it could be a posh night cost wise in all respects as a first and a one off. I've got the e-mail.

[LMcD]

Can't see that this article has been referenced anywhere yet (I'm not a subscriber so haven't read it all, but the gist is clear...) re: "clapping between movements"

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...2533ab26dcfd8e

I'm all for audience participation and inclusiveness, me! Why not encourage audiences to applaud well executed solo passages within movements? (It works in jazz clubs). And song cycles offer plentiful opportunities for enthusiastic expressions of approval. Admittedly, this could result in a performance of, say, 'Die Winterreise' lasting 2 hours, but this could surely be dealt with by inserting a 20-minute interval.

Regarding the RVW 'London' Symphony Prom. A recent thread (started by me, as it happens) discussed the issue of empty seats at concerts given by BBC 'regional' orchestras. There were quite a lot even for the première of the original version of this symphony with the BBC NOW under Richard Hickox. Some of the posts on that thread suggested that the absence of a 'star' soloist can depress sales of tickets. Many years ago I attended a performance of the Vaughan Williams 2nd at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, in which Andrew Davies conducted the BBC Symphony (I think). Anyway, you're in for a treat - it's a wonderful work - as is the Haydn!

(I wonder why my spellchecker has queried 'Croydon'? )

[Zucchini]

Can't see that this article has been referenced anywhere yet (I'm not a subscriber so haven't read it all, but the gist is clear...) re: "clapping between movements"

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...2533ab26dcfd8e

I assume that you know that you can register foc and access 2 articles per week, current or archived. I find it useful, though I buy the paper anyway.

There's also a leader (yesterday) re applause

[kernelbogey]

I'm all for audience participation and inclusiveness, me! Why not encourage audiences to applaud well executed solo passages within movements? (It works in jazz clubs). And song cycles offer plentiful opportunities for enthusiastic expressions of approval. Admittedly, this could result in a performance of, say, 'Die Winterreise' lasting 2 hours, but this could surely be dealt with by inserting a 20-minute interval.....

I think the Vienna New Year's Day Concert audience have grasped this nettle, showing in their participation in the Radetzky March the way forward. Clapping along to, say, the last movement of Beethoven 7 would take the performance truly into the twenty-first century.

[LMcD]

I think the Vienna New Year's Day Concert audience have grasped this nettle, showing in their participation in the Radetzky March the way forward. Clapping along to, say, the last movement of Beethoven 7 would take the performance truly into the twenty-first century.

My main gripe with the New Year's Day concert is that the music detracts from the dancing and the pretty scenery....

[Nick Armstrong]

Isn't it 31 July?

Apologies, you're right - I was thinking of it as 'next month' but as you've discovered, 31 July it is...

Caliban - I'm not looking to meet up or anything so don't worry about that but is H stalls, 3rd row, ok because that looks like what I've arranged?

I'd say that is pretty much ideal Lat. For my money, seats in that area are just about the best acoustically in the whole bathroom, and there's a good view. I wouldn't hesitate (ah - looks like you didn't!). Good purchase

[vinteuil]

.

... apparently the bestest box of all is held by Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. It's the grand tier, central : apparently destined for Queen Victoria, who then said she wd prefer to sit a bit to one side, so the 'Royal' box was moved.

If you wish to be a benefactor of Gonville & Caius to the tune of £10,000 or more, you too will get a chance to use this box. Friends of mine who had connections with the College have used it and said it was 'swell'...

https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/alumni/recognition-benefactors

.

[Flay]

??? I use two Laptops and both show the full red screen all the time. It's only the Tablet that displays a blue version. (But how does one "opt for a full version"?)

It doesn’t look like this has been answered. Try scrolling down to the bottom of the blue home screen and hopefully there’ll be an option to “choose full site” IIRC.

[french frank]

Can't see that this article has been referenced anywhere yet (I'm not a subscriber so haven't read it all, but the gist is clear...) re: "clapping between movements"

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...2533ab26dcfd8e

Interesting that it suggests that those who want to attract new audiences, the (unnamed?) head of an orchestra, David Pickard, are all for audiences being allowed to clap. That seems to be a vested interest unrelated to the quiet appreciation of the music.

Whose enjoyment of a concert suffers more - those who prefer there to be no inter-movement applause or those urged not to applaud? One seems to be more about the quiet appreciation of the music, the other is about the sense of entitlement to applaud if one feels like it (or showing appreciation, noisily).

[vinteuil]

.

... I'm all for clapping -

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/08/classical-music-applause-rule-obama

.

[Zucchini]

... apparently the bestest box of all is held by Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. It's the grand tier, central : apparently destined for Queen Victoria, who then said she wd prefer to sit a bit to one side, so the 'Royal' box was moved.

Done all that. A long time ago I was quite a big cheese in media research and readership/audience and new product development. My wife was heavily pregnant and my friends at the ROH, gave, just the 2 of us, the Royal Box for Otello with Jon Vickers. The rest room had a wooden toilet seat and very fine toilet paper ...

[vinteuil]

D... friends at the ROH, gave, just the 2 of us, the Royal Box for Otello with Jon Vickers. The rest room had a wooden toilet seat and very fine toilet paper ...

... I 'm sure that if it was the Royal Box it was a lavatory and lavatory paper.

.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm all for audience participation and inclusiveness, me! Why not encourage audiences to applaud well executed solo passages within movements? (It works in jazz clubs). And song cycles offer plentiful opportunities for enthusiastic expressions of approval. Admittedly, this could result in a performance of, say, 'Die Winterreise' lasting 2 hours, but this could surely be dealt with by inserting a 20-minute interval.

Assuming you're not being ironic - I'm thinking of the thin wedge argument posed further down the thread: a clap along to Beethoven 7, anyone? - one reason might be that one would applaud a spontaneously executed solo by virtue of the value jazz fans place on spontaneity, as opposed to appreciating a well-executed passage in say a concerto, which a jazz fan would regard as part of the soloist's brief, not of his or her inspiration... to the same degree as in jazz, at any rate. Maybe if the audience had been told that this particular cadenza was to be improvised by the soloist, as opposed to mugged up from the composer's score instructions, that would be a different matter.