Proms 2019 your lowlight concerts

[jayne lee wilson]

"Not Radio 3?"

But all of THIS is on Radio 3 in the next few days...!

Yeah... Just one more plug for the amazing sequence of Proms 13 -22, with as broad a program across THREE CENTURIES of choral and orchestral music as one might practically wish in a festival of this kind..

I am genuinely puzzled if a radio 3 listener can't find much in there...
Come on guys look at them: Messiaen Canyons, Haydn Creation, DSCH 10 & 11, Beethoven 2, Sibelius 1 and the original 1915 5th,
Britten, Mahler, Strauss, a recital of Strozzi, Cavalli etc....more Proms Premieres...

My God... a true cornucopia.....!

"given the catastrophic and apparently inexorable decline in quality of the Proms themselves"... really Peter?
Several Proms this season have been outstanding for familiar and new works, and the quality of both performances and sound... didn't you hear the Brahms, Britten, Brostrom, Eotvos, Janacek...?

I truly puzzle over what you are all looking for....

....but I'm repeating myself, posting too much to deaf ears, time for a break.. may look in on La Benedetti tonight....but back for the Messiaen tomorrow...

[teamsaint]

Have to agree with Jayne, there is a fine week of music in prospect. Three in a row i might get to with real enthusiasm this week, though more likely it will be one.

The Proms really is a “ glass half full” thing. There are some that don’t work, esp the pop stuff , and conservative programming ( and other matters) is an issue, but when somebody can point me towards something of comparable quality and extent anywhere in the world, I’ll be very pleased to investigate it.

Incidentally, I see that that Chi-Chi Nwanoku was having another pop at the proms again today, which I think is a real shame.

[Bella Kemp]

"Not Radio 3?"

But all of THIS is on Radio 3 in the next few days...!

Yeah... Just one more plug for the amazing sequence of Proms 13 -22, with as broad a program across THREE CENTURIES of choral and orchestral music as one might practically wish in a festival of this kind..

I am genuinely puzzled if a radio 3 listener can't find much in there...
Come on guys look at them: Messiaen Canyons, Haydn Creation, DSCH 10 & 11, Beethoven 2, Sibelius 1 and the original 1915 5th,
Britten, Mahler, Strauss, a recital of Strozzi, Cavalli etc....more Proms Premieres...

My God... a true cornucopia.....!

"given the catastrophic and apparently inexorable decline in quality of the Proms themselves"... really Peter?
Several Proms this season have been outstanding for familiar and new works, and the quality of both performances and sound... didn't you hear the Brahms, Britten, Brostrom, Eotvos, Janacek...?

I truly puzzle over what you are all looking for....

....but I'm repeating myself, posting too much to deaf ears, time for a break.. may look in on La Benedetti tonight....but back for the Messiaen tomorrow...

I adore your posts Jayne and applaud your right observation that most of the prom concerts this year are excellent, but one can't help noticing a steady creep towards the populist and the banal. Each year there are more concerts that seem to appeal more to what one might call the Glastonbury crowd, and consequently fewer that offer something to those of us who look to this season for music that offers something beyond the ephemeral buzz of popular music. I love Nina Simone and 60s pop music and all that Jazz, but I can get all this anywhere from countless other sources. Radio 3 is special and unique and shouldn't try to court a few thousand extra listeners by diluting its traditional content. The controller of Radio 3 should have a little more confidence in the power of classical music. To quote Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, 'Build it and they will come.'

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Controller of Radio 3 isn't in charge of the Proms - that's "Proms Director", David Pickard.

[teamsaint]

I adore your posts Jayne and applaud your right observation that most of the prom concerts this year are excellent, but one can't help noticing a steady creep towards the populist and the banal. Each year there are more concerts that seem to appeal more to what one might call the Glastonbury crowd, and consequently fewer that offer something to those of us who look to this season for music that offers something beyond the ephemeral buzz of popular music. I love Nina Simone and 60s pop music and all that Jazz, but I can get all this anywhere from countless other sources. Radio 3 is special and unique and shouldn't try to court a few thousand extra listeners by diluting its traditional content. The controller of Radio 3 should have a little more confidence in the power of classical music. To quote Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, 'Build it and they will come.'

Well you can get core classical rep from countless other sources, for free. A considerable part of the the value of the Proms is that it has the pulling power of a major event, unrivalled in its field. And it makes a fair ( though far from faultless) stab at using this position to spread the word about the music.

My gripe about the pop music content is that it is mostly badly done. There are interesting places for musicians from different spheres to meet .Beth Gibbons singing Gorecki Sym # 3 at the Proms could have been such a moment, for example , and could have been programmed ( and marketed) with something compatible from a more 6 Music kind of place.

[makropulos]

"Not Radio 3?"

But all of THIS is on Radio 3 in the next few days...!

Yeah... Just one more plug for the amazing sequence of Proms 13 -22, with as broad a program across THREE CENTURIES of choral and orchestral music as one might practically wish in a festival of this kind..

I am genuinely puzzled if a radio 3 listener can't find much in there...
Come on guys look at them: Messiaen Canyons, Haydn Creation, DSCH 10 & 11, Beethoven 2, Sibelius 1 and the original 1915 5th,
Britten, Mahler, Strauss, a recital of Strozzi, Cavalli etc....more Proms Premieres...

My God... a true cornucopia.....!

"given the catastrophic and apparently inexorable decline in quality of the Proms themselves"... really Peter?
Several Proms this season have been outstanding for familiar and new works, and the quality of both performances and sound... didn't you hear the Brahms, Britten, Brostrom, Eotvos, Janacek...?

I truly puzzle over what you are all looking for....

....but I'm repeating myself, posting too much to deaf ears, time for a break.. may look in on La Benedetti tonight....but back for the Messiaen tomorrow...

Couldn't agree more. And (so far) some slightly less enthralling concerts on paper (to me at least) came across as fascinating and enthralling (Ben-Haim comes to mind). I was lucky enough to go to Ma vlast last Saturday and the Eötvös concert in the middle of the week. The first was simply outstanding, and the second never less than enjoyable if not on the same exalted level of music-making. And the NYO tonight blew my socks off too in their own way. Now there are all the treats to come that you mention, so I'm not minded to carp. Of course there are half a dozen concerts I won't be listening to (the list of lowlights is pretty well chosen I think), but that still leaves a huge number that I can't wait to hear.

[edashtav]

Teamsaint wrote,"My gripe about the pop music content is that it is mostly badly done."

I could not agree more!

[edashtav]

(An aside re zucchini)

Jayne wrote,"Wow my little vegetable,..."

I find it 'singular' that the Italian plural has become the English singular.

[LMcD]

(An aside re zucchini)

Jayne wrote,"Wow my little vegetable,..."

I find it 'singular' that the Italian plural has become the English singular.

Cf. 'graffiti' … but then, 'media' 'bacteria' and 'data' is now all singular isn't they?

[edashtav]

Cf. 'graffiti' … but then, 'media' 'bacteria' and 'data' is now all singular isn't they?

[Pulcinella]

(An aside re zucchini)

Jayne wrote,"Wow my little vegetable,..."

I find it 'singular' that the Italian plural has become the English singular.

But we have paninis so why not zucchinis?

[LMcD]

But we have paninis so why not zucchinis?

To paraphrase from my favourite travel documentary, 'Balham, Gateway To The South':
Sorry, love, zucchinis are off … sorry, no paninis love … just bread

[cloughie]

To paraphrase from my favourite travel documentary, 'Balham, Gateway To The South':
Sorry, love, zucchinis are off … sorry, no paninis love … just bread

Why zucchini anyway, don’t we call them courgettes and when we have left them for while, marrows.

[Sir Velo]

But we have paninis

Oh but surely only among the uneducated?

[PhilipT]

.. - why not a Proms Fringe? I've never understood why there isn't one - ..

Some of us have fond memories of the Prommers' Chorus and Orchestra, who used to put on their own Prom outside the Hall one afternoon a year. More than once, their programme included a world premiere. The Hall management provided a lot of support without being overt about it. But the glazing-in of the carriage entrances took away their performance space, and the driving force no longer proms.