Prom 74 (12.09.20) Last Night of the Proms

[Ein Heldenleben]

I agree with you about Nicola and Gullda’s voice but why the need to show the scenes of the four nations, much rather see Nicola! However, that arrangement of Jerusalem was dreadful!

I think it’s about bringing the nation together . On which note greetings from Devon..

[Bryn]

My understanding was that the RAH did not have, or at least use, air conditioning during the Proms, so why does it sound as if such is in operation, especially during the Lark Ascending . . . ? This the case on TV, whether via mp2 on SD or HE-AAC on HD.

[Keraulophone]

If Dalia makes a speech, she’ll be Finnish before she’s started.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think she’s doing a very good job conducting it...

[cloughie]

I think it’s about bringing the nation together . On which note greetings from Devon..

...and from West of the Tamar!

[Prommer]

Better to have had it than not... but, but, but...

Why only a handful of singers in one section of the stalls? A much bigger sound could have been created by using far more of the space. Especially in the (bizarre) absence of any audience at all.

[Bryn]

Re #169 and #170, two counties with particular reason to celebrate the singing of Thompson and Arne's Rule Britannia. The routing of Barbary pirate slavers by the then-new Royal Navy saved many Kernow and Devon coastal residents from being taken by those slavers.

[oddoneout]

I agree with you about Nicola and Gullda’s voice but why the need to show the scenes of the four nations, much rather see Nicola! However, that arrangement of Jerusalem was dreadful!

I rather liked the scenic nations footage - no bad thing in these sad distracted times to be reminded that we live in a beautiful country, and just take a few minutes to appreciate that.
Much of this evening's concert I found very moving, for various reasons, and I'm glad I watched/listened. The applause from the park worked I thought - it would have been a bit too much to have no reaction at all to the music and the talking heads on the TV would have been no substitute. Being able to hear the sea shanties without audience input was wonderful - the fiddle and flute in the hornpipe a joy, Tom Bowling without the drone.
On the minus side I did not like the arranged Jerusalem, all credit to Golda Schultz that it did not sound even worse, and felt that the microphone that seemed to have been attached to the harp in the Elgar was a mistake - prominent repeated chords blurred everything else that was going on and sounded most odd.

[cloughie]

Re #169 and #170, two counties with particular reason to celebrate the singing of Thompson and Arne's Rule Britannia. The routing of Barbary pirate slavers by the then-new Royal Navy saved many Kernow and Devon coastal residents from being taken by those slavers.

Indeed so!

[Bert Coules]

Parts of it were very moving, I thought. I enjoyed both of the soloists and the beautifully enthusiastic conductor: I would actually have liked to see and hear her deliver the traditional speech, even to an empty hall: the audience, as we were told and anyway could see for ourselves, was spread far beyond the walls of the RAH.

As usual, I didn't find the talking heads adding to my enjoyment, though also as usual if any one of them had come out with a comment that was even a touch less than wholly enthusiastic at some point, I would have revised my opinion.

Oh, and I missed Auld Lang Syne at the end. That would have been fitting.
.

[oddoneout]

Parts of it were very moving, I thought. I enjoyed both of the soloists and the beautifully enthusiastic conductor: I would actually have liked to see and hear her deliver the traditional speech, even to an empty hall: the audience, as we were told and anyway could see for ourselves, was spread far beyond the walls of the RAH.

As usual, I didn't find the talking heads adding to my enjoyment, though also as usual if any one of them had come out with a comment that was even a touch less than wholly enthusiastic at some point, I would have revised my opinion.

Oh, and I missed Auld Lang Syne at the end. That would have been fitting.
.

Auld Lang Syne wasn't in the RAH but it did make an appearance after the R3 broadcast in a 'specially curated'(and perfectly acceptable) version.

[DracoM]

Sorry, I thought it was limp, sentimentalised crap. And actually deeply embarrassing.

[Bert Coules]

...in a 'specially curated'(and perfectly acceptable) version.

I struggle to get used to this new usage of the word "curate". It means - or used to mean - rather more than simply "organise".

[Nick Armstrong]

I struggle to get used to this new usage of the word "curate".

Can’t stand it!

Fast-forwarded through much of the LNOTP, failed to engage (and the manufactured enthusiasm of the chat bits was cringeworthy... only Rev. Richard Coles raised the level above dire)... although the soprano soloist is a bit special, I thought, mainly from her first appearance (the Strauss didn’t quite work).

[kernelbogey]

I missed all of this as I was out listening to live music - Beethoven, Chausson - for the first time in six months at our local Chamber Music Festival*; and Mozart and Faure the night before!

Wondering, on the basis of above posts whether to bother looking in on LNOTP on iPlayer. Seems moot. (I generally have avoided it over the years.) Might dip into the first half.

*by Primrose Piano Quartet