Prom 1: First Night of the Proms - 13.07.18

[Bryn]

I’ve experienced the whole on iplayer using headphones and I found it more visceral and involving. The roving camera work less obtrusive and to be honest on second viewing hardly any at all, which was contrary to my first impression. Recommend giving headphones a try.

Have tried that with the outside version from the night before, too?

[edashtav]

We were the crucified!

Ha, ha.. in a basement ot was it... in abasement ?

[cloughie]

Good to hear the individual movements of The Planets get the applause they deserve.

Omg, the Happy clappers back so early into the season.

[Nick Armstrong]

Ha, ha.. in a basement ot was it... in abasement ?

No, in Yorkshire

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Omg, the Happy clappers back so early into the season.

I blame the concert programme policy, for making them so lavish and expensive. Many of the audience assume the work has finished if there's moment's silence. (Probably as a result of listening to Breakfast/Essential Classics/ In Tune - or going to 20-20 cricket matches.) Cheaper programmes would mean more people buying them, becoming better educated about the music.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well I love TTUR, I'll listen to it any time - yes, it prefigures Sea Symphony (RVW in "Whitman mode") but I don't hear any Parry particularly - just a really gorgeous work for chorus and orchestra that really did it for me in this performance.

Me too

[LMcD]

Omg, the Happy clappers back so early into the season.

I find clapping between movements particularly irritating when it's initially half-hearted. With luck, this might discourage further outbreaks, but quite often - as in this case - it might encourage more people to join in next time. Let's hope nobody ever feels the need to applaud after, say, the first song in 'Die Winterreise'....

At the first classical concert I ever intended at the RAH (some 50 years ago), the programme contained a gentle reminder that it would be better if the audience didn't applaud at the end of the first movement of the 'Rach 2', however exciting the performance may have been. The request went unheeded.

Having never seen (as against heard) a performance of The Planets before, I with my unmusical ear was previously unaware of how rich and skilful the scoring is.
I enjoyed the performance - as Mr Oramo clearly also did - noises off notwithstanding. The same goes for the RVW.

As for the Anna Meredith - well, the kindest thing I can honestly say is that, while it left me totally unmoved in any way, it didn't actually annoy me.
There was so much going on that the only projected movement title that I spotted was the last one. And I'm not clever enough to pay much attention to the music while gawping at - or do I mean being distracted by? - the light show. I'm not sure that a combination of son et lumière and extracts from telegrams sent from the front worked that well. The spareness of the scoring in the 'Armistice' movement came as a welcome relief from all the previous goings-on. Sub-titles for the telegrams would have helped, but I realize that their absence was probably unavoidable seeing as it was a world première. Having had time to consider, I would suggest that the maxim 'less is more' might be appropriate.

[french frank]

it would be better if the audience didn't applaud at the end of the first movement of the 'Rach 2', however exciting the performance may have been. The request went unheeded.

While we're on the subject a few years back Our Tom did announce that Maria João Pires had requested that the audience not applaud between the separate pieces (Chopin nocturnes?): that went unheeded too (I think Tom supports ignoring artists' wishes in such cases).

But on the subject of the concert, and the RVW in particular: A particular work is played and gets a splendid performance. Does it become less enjoyable because the opening bars resemble the style of another composer, or is that fact just a passing comment of no particular importance?

[BBMmk2]

Well I love TTUR, I'll listen to it any time - yes, it prefigures Sea Symphony (RVW in "Whitman mode") but I don't hear any Parry particularly - just a really gorgeous work for chorus and orchestra that really did it for me in this performance.

Quite agree Cali! I love this work, even if it was a run through for bigger things.

[Bryn]

. . . A particular work is played and gets a splendid performance. Does it become less enjoyable because the opening bars resemble the style of another composer, or is that fact just a passing comment of no particular importance?

Indeed, one might as well moan about the reflection of Stravinsky's Fireworks in the Knussen.

[Petrushka]

I blame the concert programme policy, for making them so lavish and expensive. Many of the audience assume the work has finished if there's moment's silence. (Probably as a result of listening to Breakfast/Essential Classics/ In Tune - or going to 20-20 cricket matches.) Cheaper programmes would mean more people buying them, becoming better educated about the music.

The Proms programme books are among the very best of their kind, highly informative and not particularly lavish or epensive at all compared to those sold at other events. I don't for a moment believe that this has any bearing on inter-movement applause. Rather I think it's started by one or two die-hards and people automatically take it up. As there will be some noise at that point anyway (coughing, shuffling, talking etc) it doesn't bother me as much as it once did.

There have been few comments on the Meredith. Artists need to tread warily when it comes to commemorating a great national or international tragedy such as the Great War in case they end up producing something that trivialises it. I'm afraid that, imo, Meredith fell headlong into this trap. The light show only served to compound the triviality while it wasn't clear where the '5 telegrams' came in as words were, in any case, practically inaudible. Sorry, but for me, it failed on all counts.

[Richard Tarleton]

Rather I think it's started by one or two die-hards

As Butch Cassidy says, "Who are those guys?". Are the Proms the only concerts they go to?

[LMcD]

The Proms programme books are among the very best of their kind, highly informative and not particularly lavish or epensive at all compared to those sold at other events. I don't for a moment believe that this has any bearing on inter-movement applause. Rather I think it's started by one or two die-hards and people automatically take it up. As there will be some noise at that point anyway (coughing, shuffling, talking etc) it doesn't bother me as much as it once did.

There have been few comments on the Meredith. Artists need to tread warily when it comes to commemorating a great national or international tragedy such as the Great War in case they end up producing something that trivialises it. I'm afraid that, imo, Meredith fell headlong into this trap. The light show only served to compound the triviality while it wasn't clear where the '5 telegrams' came in as words were, in any case, practically inaudible. Sorry, but for me, it failed on all counts.

I wish I'd had the courage to say that, because that's basically how I felt about the piece. You've certainly no need to be sorry!
The fact that something is technically feasible isn't always a good reason for going ahead and doing it.
Given its complexity and historical references, I wonder how often it will be performed in future.

[french frank]

I do wonder what some of these new commissions are intended to be for. A piece by Birtwistle, for example, is obviously expected (whatever its subsequent fate) to be a serious contribution to the contemporary repertoire.

Anna Meredith composed a work for the Ten Pieces a couple of years back - good fun for groups of kids to perform. Was this piece intended simply to be an 'interesting' new work for the (young?) First Nighters, including those tempted in by The Planets? Or an an act of encouragement sponsorship for a younger generation of composers? Or what?

[Serial_Apologist]

Indeed, one might as well moan about the reflection of Stravinsky's Fireworks in the Knussen.

Or Strauss's near-quotation at the opening of "Don Juan" of the start to Mendelssohn's "Italian Symphony". And speaking of Stravinsky, Poulenc's borrowings from the "Pastorale" from "L'histoire du soldat" at the beginning of "Les Biches".

We could almost start a thread on this!