Prom 73: Before the Ending of the Day – 6.09.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

22:15
Royal Albert Hall

Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum – In principio omnes
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla: Deus in adiutorium
Jacobus Gallus: Pater noster
Gregorio Allegri: Miserere
Thomas Tallis: Te lucis ante terminum (I)
Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis
John Browne: O Maria salvatoris

Tallis Scholars ensemble
Peter Phillips director

A late-night moment of contemplation led by Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars. Recreating the Christian office of Compline, the final service of the church day, they weave together a sung meditation spanning over 1,000 years of sacred music. The delicate tracery of Renaissance polyphony by Padilla and Gallus gives way to the 21st-century ‘Spiritual’ Minimalism of Arvo Pärt, and at the centre of it all sits Allegri’s exquisite Miserere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's good to know that the BBC can programme a really excellent professional choir from time to time. . .

[BBMmk2]

I won't be missing this! I've made an arrangement for brass of the Allegri. Been well received thus far.

[underthecountertenor]

It's good to know that the BBC can programme a really excellent profession choir from time to time. . .

I note that, rather than respond to the invitation to comment on the acclaim for the BBC Singers’ Cadogan Hall concert elsewhere (having somehow managed to predict that it would be terrible), you’ve chosen to make yet another (obviously implicit and gratuitous) snide swipe at them here. I think we’ve all got by now that you don’t like them. Why do you feel the need to denigrate them so obsessively?

[doversoul1]

Bump. 10.15pm tonight

‘Spiritual’ Minimalism of Arvo Pärt, and at the centre of it all sits Allegri’s exquisite Miserere

I suppose a Prom is a Prom after all. The rest looks interesting.

[Miles Coverdale]

Tallis Scholars: Compline Prom

Did anyone hear the Tallis Scholars’ Compline Prom this evening? Some lovely music, including Allegri’s Miserere, but the highlight for me was the final piece, John Browne’s O Maria salvatoris mater.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00009ng

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I note that, rather than respond to the invitation to comment on the acclaim for the BBC Singers’ Cadogan Hall concert elsewhere (having somehow managed to predict that it would be terrible), you’ve chosen to make yet another (obviously implicit and gratuitous) snide swipe at them here. I think we’ve all got by now that you don’t like them. Why do you feel the need to denigrate them so obsessively?

OK. I suppose it's because the BBC promotes the BBCS as though the choir were the best thing since the dawn of civilisation. I think they could do better.

[doversoul1]

Did anyone hear the Tallis Scholars’ Compline Prom this evening? Some lovely music, including Allegri’s Miserere, but the highlight for me was the final piece, John Browne’s O Maria salvatoris mater.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00009ng

Was there a microphone facing the audience? I have heard coughs and shuffles in concerts on the radio but nothing like the noise in yesterday’s Prom. I couldn’t stick to it.

Allegri’s Miserere: I found the soprano sounding almost shrill and after the third repeat, I could hardly bear it. But I will listen to the whole concert on iPlayer. I was too bothered by the coughs and noises to relax and enjoy the music.

[cmr_for3]

One of the few proms I've listened to live and complete. Really enjoyed. Looking at the schedule last night I see that outside of the Proms this slot is usually speech. This is a shame, it was most enjoyable to go to bed with a live concert!

[oddoneout]

I listened, and enjoyed the singing - not so keen on the audience contributions and assorted noises off. They seemed not so intrusive later in the concert, so perhaps the offenders had been escorted out or a microphone switched off.
The Allegri is not something I particularly enjoy either to perform or hear, but perhaps because of the way it was sandwiched between other things it didn't seem so much of an endurance. Agree that the soprano was not quite as good as one might have ideally wished, but not a major problem as far as I was concerned.
I too thought the Browne was a case of saving the best till last, and agree that the concert was a lovely way to end the evening.

[hmvman]

Just caught up with this concert on the iPlayer and spent an hour or so enraptured by it. Lovely singing and staging, I only wish I'd been able to be there on the night.

Agree with others about the Browne which was a revelation - that opening, radiant chord was just spine-tingling.

Agree, too about the audience noise but I've just come to live with it at the Proms now; a particularly noisy season this year, I feel though.

[BBMmk2]

The Tallis Scholars have recorded a cd of John Browne’s music. Very good it is too.

[PhilipT]

I was there. It was a great example of how, with intelligent lighting and a performance worth paying attention to, these late night concerts can seem very intimate in such a large space. In my view it was the best Prom I went to this season. I don't recall the audience noise being worse than usual - there was some shuffling during the opening processional number as the Arena closed in behind the singers once they were on the platform, and some people had to sit down during the final number. Doubtless the broadcast engineers had to turn the volume knob up a bit for such a performance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Doubtless the broadcast engineers had to turn the volume knob up a bit for such a performance.

That's probably the reason, though they didn't have to. After all, it was quieter than a Verdi Requiem in the hall itself.

[hmvman]

I think it is the case that the audience noise is less noticeable when you're there in the hall than when listening to the broadcasts and I think you're right, PhilipT, that in order to get a good audio level for the performers the microphone channels are open to the extent that they pick up more background noise. I just wish people would at least try to stifle their coughs a bit!

Thanks, BBMmk2, it's good to know there's a TS CD of Browne's music.