The Proms

We watched this Prom last evening and I just adored it, although I was a tiny bit disappointed that Kim didn't sing 'Something Wonderful' or 'Hello, young lovers' from 'The King and I' - but it would have been impossible to fit everyone's favourite songs into the time allowed.

I agree that Kim, who I think is absolutely wonderful, didn't quite have the contralto range for 'Climb Every Mountain' - but she was still splendid!

Wish it had gone on for three hours! :D
 
Umm - to those who might have played in a production of Carousel - is this some big dance routine? SounRAB like the kind of thing either at the end of act 1 or start of act 2...
 
Strauss - I can't gt past the fact that he was the Nazis pet house composer, I deeply suspect all that monomaniacal self-indulgence. It just turns my stomach. Who was it said he had all the talent in the world, but nothing to say. One exception, the song "Morgen." That is quite lovely.
 
I agree with Kapellmeister insofar as his love of Strauss' Four Last Songs and of Berlioz goes. I thought the Maxim Rysanov performance of Harold in Italy at the Proms a few weeks ago was wonderful.
 
Time to revive the thread. Richard's Strauss's beautiful four last songs in a concert with the Berlin Phil condcuted by Simon Rattle in an hour on bbc2 (on radio now)

And tomorrow the log awaited 1910 prom! (not on Tv tho)
 
From the Independent (in April)


Proms makes history with two last nights



"If you were to travel back to the Last Night of the Proms in 1910, you would see 3,000 people paying their threepence to listen to Edward German's comic operettas and Dorothy Forster's fashionable songs.


In other worRAB, you'd spend the evening listening to popular turn-of-the-century compositions that have long since been lost to obscurity, with no rousing singalongs of the hymn "Jerusalem" or Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" (although there would at least have been a rendition of "Rule, Britannia!").

But those who feel nostalgic for this bygone era can now re-live that concert, free of charge, at a retro-Last Night of the Proms set to run alongside the regular series of concerts this summer. Richard Wright, controller of BBC Radio 3 and director of the Proms, yesterday announced that for the first time in their 115-year history, the Proms would put on two "last night" performances to give concert-goers a flavour of past and present. Dressing up in period costume for the 1910 performance, Wright added, was optional.

The 1910 "last night" on 5 September will include compositions by Proms founder Sir Henry Wood, as well as a parade of short popular classics and new works which Wood called his "novelties". One short cello piece from the 1910 programme will be replaced by a new work based on a movement from the unfinished Cello Concerto by Vaughan Williams.

Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs will include horn pipes and end with "Rule, Britannia!". In the course of the nine-week Proms season, which begins on 16 July, there will also be a recreation of a 1962 Prom by the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. "It's a snapshot of Proms history," Wright said.

The announcement follows his decision in 2008 to recreate a Prom which premiered a Mahler symphony in 1904, which proved a great and unexpected success.

The other Last Night of the Proms on 11 September, which will bring this year's season to an end, will feature an eclectic mix of music. As well as the traditional staples such as "Jerusalem", Elgar and Tchaikovsky, there will also be mass singalongs of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" and Wagner's "Lohengrin
 
Ha, I should have checked the thread for replies first!

Watched it twice, nicer the second time to both see and hear the lovely Karita Mattila. Wish they'd make an exception to their 3 proms a week on TV ration and show tomorrow's 1910 Prom but oh well.
 
This had fallen right back to page 6!

I'm off to the Proms on Saturday - very very excited now! And also I've realised that on Friday on BBC 4 there's a Bruch violin concerto. I know I really like one of Bruch's (I think I only know one) but I don't know which one, so I'll wait and hope to be pleasantly surprised.
 
And when they'd push back subsequent programmes to broadcast the encores! One conductor from Eastern Europe gave about 15 one year. He just couldn't deny the audience another. :D

May have been the only person on R3 but Beethoven's Ode To Joy was delivered with panache by the Minnesota orchestra; almost like it as much as his 7th now.
 
Don't think any of them have been live this year. The Sondheim one that I went to was on TV the same night but about an hour later, I saw it all in the RAH and got home in time to watch the second half again on the box (I live about 15 bus stops away). They edit out some of the applause/pauses between songs/pieces and some of the applaude at the end to make the broadcast a little shorter than the live event.

You'll Never Walk Alone is part of the Last Night programme this year, hence it was not done at the R&H prom:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/whatson/1109.shtml
 
No it was built well before they properly understood acoustics.

I went to one concert as recently as five years ago where they ended up giving anyone in the Circle that asked a full refund at half time because the sound guy had got it completely wrong for the Circle and it sounded hideous - that's a LOT of money to give back - so they still have problems occasionally even now.

Who can claim that musical bit of June Is Bustin Out just now with all the piccolos etc going on was not fabulous!
 
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