Proms 2022

[alywin]

I recently received an email from Transport for London saying that, among other things, the bus stop at Victoria for the No. 52 bus has changed. It now leaves from inside the bus station, stop A (is that the old one it used to leave from?) Just in case anyone uses it to get to the Royal Albert Hall.

[Petrushka]

Just booked my hotel and rail tickets for my four Proms. The cheapest decent central London hotel room I could find was £135 per night. Add on rail fares from Derby and it becomes an expense that looks impossible to justify any longer even though my combined pensions roughly equal the salary I was on while in work three years ago.

The hotel rate is around double what I paid three years ago when breakfast was included. Now it's room rate only.

[alywin]

In a review Fiona Maddox commented favourably on the new air conditioning system that has been installed at the RAH. Has anyone who has attended a concert this season noticed an improvement?

Depends what you mean by improvement, I guess. If you're up in the Gallery and don't mind trying to pick one of the few points near the wall where you aren't in a draught, and don't mind being able to hear the noise of the additional air conditioners - which they seem to have on at all times, rather than when the outside temperature is above 30° - over any quiet bits of music, then I guess it's an improvement :)

[LHC]

I've just received an email from the RAH to say that Kirill Petrenko has cancelled his second appearance with the BPO on Sunday 4 September.

Although he will still conduct them on the Saturday night, instead of having him conducting Shostakovich 10, the concert will now consist of Schnittke's Viola Concerto with Tabea Zimmermann, and Bruckner Symphony No. 4 conducted by Daniel Harding.

I'm sure it will still be a fine concert, but I was looking forward to hearing Petrenko.

(Edited as I had confused the original programmes for the Saturday and Sunday concerts)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just booked my hotel and rail tickets for my four Proms. The cheapest decent central London hotel room I could find was £135 per night. Add on rail fares from Derby and it becomes an expense that looks impossible to justify any longer even though my combined pensions roughly equal the salary I was on while in work three years ago.

The hotel rate is around double what I paid three years ago when breakfast was included. Now it's room rate only.

The hotel I used to stay at (Melia White House) was £150 pre covid now more like £230 to £250. Before that I stayed at the Lancaster Gate (very convenient ) which is still around the £130 mark but is always booked up. I guess the Premier Inn Paddington beckons …

[Norrette]

I've just received an email from the RAH to say that Kirill Petrenko has cancelled his second appearance with the BPO on Sunday 4 September.

Although he will still conduct them on the Saturday night, instead of having him conducting Shostakovich 10, the concert will now consist of Schnittke's Viola Concerto with Tabea Zimmermann, and Bruckner Symphony No. 4 conducted by Daniel Harding.

I'm sure it will still be a fine concert, but I was looking forward to hearing Petrenko.

I am cancelling two tickets as I specifically wanted to hear the Shostakovich.

[LHC]

I am cancelling two tickets as I specifically wanted to hear the Shostakovich.

I must admit I too wanted to see the Shostakovich, and would probably not have booked a ticket to see the programme that is now being performed, but I’ll still go and hopefully enjoy the concert. It’s still an opportunity to hear the BPO.

[mopsus]

I went to last night's Prom (Prom 69, the Missa Solemnis) and was disappointed by the reduction in size of the programme. I compared it to the programme for Mahler 8 in 2018 (a concert I sang in) and found it was 48 pages (excluding cover) as opposed to 72. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison, when there is a lot of text in the Mahler and more artist profiles/biographies to fit in. But considering the column space devoted to discussion of the work being performed, last night's programme had 77 cms worth, when the Mahler 4 years ago had 162 cm, including an essay and a review connected with the first UK performance. (In each case one column is rather thinner, to make space for an image.) The note on the Mass didn't tell me anything much I didn't already know - and I am no great expert on the work - so I felt short-changed for my £5.

In the past, I've enjoyed reading the programme as I travel home, especially when a work or a composer was unfamiliar to me, but now I'll think twice about buying one. I apologise if this matter has been raised in previous years; I've looked through this thread, and it's a hard topic to search for because of the ambiguity of the word 'programme'.

[duncan]

Proms 71 and 72 (The Last Night) have been cancelled. BBC Proms Facebook page

[bluestateprommer]

Realized that I forgot to check the Symphony Cast page to see which Proms that they've chosen for "the American market" this summer. Symphony Cast's normal practice is to go with the First Night and the Last Night for sure, at the bare minimum. Obviously things are disrupted this year with the loss of the 2022 Last Night. What Symphony Cast has chosen so far is:

Week of August 1: Prom 1 = The First Night (Verdi Requiem), BBC SO / Sakari Oramo
Week of August 8: Prom 8 = BBC SO / Dalia Stasevska / Denis Kozhukin (Jóhannsson / Rachmaninov / Hildur Guðnadóttir / Tchaikovsky)
Week of August 15: Prom 9 = BBC NOW / Ariane Matiakh / Catrin Finch (Ravel / Sally Beamish / Rimsky-Korsakov)
Week of August 22: Prom 27 = NYOGB / Andrew Gourlay / Simone Dinnerstein (Elfman, Gershwin / Ravel)
Week of August 29: Prom 31 = Ulster Orchestra / Daniele Rustioni / Louise Alder (Wagner / R. Strauss / Mahler / R. Schumann)
Week of September 5: Prom 36 = Vienna RSO / Marin Alsop / Benjamin Grosvenor (Bartók / Prokofiev / Hannah Eisendle / Dvořák)
Week of September 12: Prom 49 = LSO / SSR / Sarah Connolly / Louise Alder (Birtwistle / Mahler 2)

No idea what the next few will be, and given my bad track record at guessing, I probably shouldn't go there, but I will anyway:
Guess # 1: Nicola Benedetti with the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto (assuming royalty payments are settled), the RSNO & Thomas Sondergard
Guess # 2: JEG/ORR LvB Missa solemnis, the de facto "last night" of the 2022 Proms

And maybe also:
Guess # 3: Chineke! Beethoven 9
Guess # 4: BBC SO / Karina Canellakis

We'll see (or at least I will).

[bluestateprommer]

A collated list of the selected "Proms at Christmas 2022":

Monday 19 December:
(a) Prom 66 (BBC SO / Canellakis)
(b) Prom 32 (Late Night Prom; Tredegar Band)

Tuesday 20 December: Prom 49 (Mahler 2, LSO/Rattle)

Wednesday 21 December: Prom 21 (Gaming Prom)

Thursday 22 December:
(a) Prom 60 (The Dream Prom)
(b) Proms at the ENO at Printworks (Anthony Roth Costanzo, ENO Orchestra/Kamensek)

Friday 23 December:
(a) JSB, Mass in b (Dunedin Consort)
(b) Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32 (Andras Schiff)

Monday 26 December:
(a) Prom 61: George Walker & Beethoven 9 (Chineke!/Edusei)
(b) Prom 58: 'This New Noise' (Public Service Broadcasting)

Tuesday 27 December:
(a) Prom 67: Benedetti / RSNO / Sondergard
(b) Prom 4: Cynthia Erivo

Wednesday 28 December:
(a) Prom 52: Finnish RSO / Pekka Kuusisto / Nicholas Collon
(b) Prom 55: Nathan Laube organ recital

Thursday 29 December:
(a) Prom 43: Handel - 'Solomon'
(b) Prom 45: Amjad Ali Khan

Friday 30 December:
(a) Prom 69: Beethoven - 'Missa solemnis'
(b) Prom 56: 'The South African Jazz Songbook'

Monday 2 January 2023: Prom 62 - Mahler 7 (Berlin Philharmonic / Kirill Petrenko)

Tuesday 3 January 2023: Prom 64 - Schnittke & Bruckner

Wednesday 4 January 2023: Prom 59, Elgar - 'The Dream of Gerontius'

Obviously one can quibble about various choices, as well as various omissions (e.g. I would have replaced 'The Dream Prom' with one of Oramo's BBC Proms, either the First Night or Prom 39). But on balance, a pretty reasonable selection.