Last Night of the Proms Review

“Good evening and welcome to the party!”

So here we are, Prom 75: The Last Night of the Proms (LNOP). The BBC Symphony Orchestra, along with the BBC Symphony Chorus, soloists Nigel Kennedy, Joyce DiDonato and Iestyn Davies, conducted by Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct Last Night, all took to the stage in this marathon concert, with a running time of over three hours. It’s challenging enough to listen to via iPlayer, which you can pause whenever you please for food/toilet breaks, so it is an amazing feat for the Prommers to stay in such incredibily high spirits that whole time. The audience in the Royal Albert Hall were in high spirits from the very beginning and completely mad by the end.

“It is not just an end-of-term party, it is also a wonderful celebration” and that it is, with LNOP featuring pieces from birthday boys Wagner, Verdi and Britten, violinist Nigel Kennedy, who also performed in Prom 34, and world and British premiere pieces.

Be warned, there will be superlatives by the bucketful!

Act 1:

1. LNOP began with the final world premiere for the season, Anna Clyne’s party piece Masquerade. It sounds quite like something out if a film soundtrack and makes full use of the big orchestra. A great piece to start LNOP, and one of my favourite world premieres this season.
2. Bicentenary man Richard Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg – overture. Overtures like this almost seem tailor made for Last Night, both musically, and in this case, titularly (though it’s more of a case of the Mastersingers of the BBCSC!). Excellent.
3. The stage then was reset for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which is a bit of a change of pace. Counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and the singers of the BBCSC were really beautiful in this piece.
4. Ralph Vaughn-Williams’s The Lark Ascending, featuring Nigel Kennedy as the solo violin. I really like this piece, it’s so very English, and as it’s so calming and beautiful, quite an apt piece for the first half of LNOP, before the madness of Act II. Kennedy played beautifully, and listening to this piece on a Sunday afternoon, with the sun streaming in through my window, looking out on the green Australian countryside, everything felt rather perfect.
5.  Centenarian Benjamin Britten’s The Building of the House. This piece shows off the chorus wonderfully, and they do sound fantastic.
6. 7. & 8. The final three pieces of Act I were all sung by soprano Joyce DiDonato, accompanied by the BBCSO. In order, they were Massenet’s Chérubin – ‘Je suis gris! je suis ivre!’, Handel’s Xerxes – ‘Frondi tenere e belle … Ombra mai fù’, and Rossini’s La donna del lago – ‘Tanti affetti in tal momento!’. These were very well sung, but I think I preferred everything else in the first act, rather than these three pieces, as I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I’m just not the biggest fan of opera.

So far, over £82,000 have been collected for the Proms Musical Charities.

Act II:

The second half began with two pieces from Bernstein’s Candide, the Overture and ‘Make our Garden Grow’. I particularly loved the overture, it is quite a famous piece, but it’s a great one, too. The chorus were again sublime in ‘Make our Garden Grow’. I will keep going on about how great the BBCSC are, because they really are absolutely fantastic.

The BBCSC again got to shine in the other bicentenary man Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Va, pensiero’ (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco. This is probably one of the most famous opera choruses, and I must say, I operatic pieces sung by a chorus, rather than a soloist.

Between pieces you can hear all the party-poppers going off in the crowd. This has been happening since the very beginning.

Joyce DiDonato then returned to sing Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. This was a properly beautiful rendition of this song.

Nigel Kennedy then returned to play Monti’s Csárdás. This is obviously one of those pieces that you miss quite a bit from when you can’t actually see it, as a number of times throughout this piece, the audience laughed. I don’t know why, as us poor iPlayer listeners aren’t treated to such information, but it was amazing playing by Kennedy anyway, who brings such energy and enthusiasm to his playing. I think in the end Kennedy was just improvising, as there were definitely the opening cords from Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony and some other pieces thrown in there. That was brilliant.

Next Joyce DiDonato took to the stage again, this time to sing the traditional Londonderry Air (Danny Boy). You can actually watch this here, and it was great to be able to see the RAH and what everyone looked like! It would be nice if the full stream was available internationally, but, alas, snippets are all we get. This song was beautifully performed. Very, very good.

Singing voices at the ready, here we go!

Joyce DiDonato sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.  I was also able to watch this here. I had the sound on my laptop turned up to full-blast, but it loses too much sound quality, so I ended up putting headphones in. At least then I can’t hear myself singing (though the rest of the family are probably thinking what is she doing?!). I love this song. I love 6000 people singing along to it. It’s brilliant.

With hardly any break, the orchestra went straight into Granville Bantock’s Sea Reivers, which started a bit of an maritime-themed trilogy. This was a great piece, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve really enjoyed all the Bantock pieces played during this Proms Season, and I hope to hear more of him, because all of his works have been wonderful.

The maritime theme continued with the UK premiere of George Lloyd’s HMS Trinidad March.  I love a good march, and this is clearly one of them. I found myself bopping away to it. Very cheerful, very good.

Voices at the ready – the maritime theme concluded with Thomas Arne’s Rule, Britannia! You can watch this, Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem here. Words fail me. There is nothing I can say about this. Brilliant. Amazing. The best. An encore. Of course.

Marin Alsop kept the Prom moving after the encore, plunging straight into Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 in D Major (Land of Hope and Glory). Again, what can I say. Watch it. Encore of the chorus. So much energy from the RAH audience.

Parry (arr. Elgar) Jerusalem. Ibid. Full encore.

Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of the British National Anthem (God Save the Queen). Even HM the Queen herself has said that she likes this version of it (which is saying something, since she’s rather well acquainted with said song!). It is a very good arrangement, and such a great way to conclude the Proms.

And of course, the unprogrammed Auld Lang Syng, when the audience take over.

This has probably been the best LNOP that I’ve heard. I’m at a loss for words. I can’t possibly listen to any more music for probably the rest of the night now. That was just so good and I wasn’t even there.

There is nothing like the Proms, and nothing like Last Night.

“Thank goodness for the BBC Proms.”

(Photos from the BBC Proms Facebook page)

Prom 71: Górecki, Vaughan Williams & Tchaikovsky Review

Prom 71 is a rather big Prom, with not one, but two symphonies, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Osmo Vänskä. This is the BBCSO’s 10^th of 11 Proms this season; their final Prom will of course be Last Night on Saturday night (UK time). The Proms Tchaikovsky symphony cycle also continues with Prom 71 featuring his final work, the beautiful Symphony No. 6.

The Prom began with Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’, a rather mammoth work, with a running time of just under an hour. This piece is not called ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ for nothing – the entire symphony is particularly melancholy, and quite properly sad. Ruby Hughes n was the soprano, and I must say, she was outstanding. Despite this being a very sad piece of work, it is also beautiful, and was excellently performed by the BBCSO.

Ralph Vaughn Williams’s Four Last Songs (orch. A. Payne) followed after interval, with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston as soloist. This was nice, but after the excellent symphony beforehand, it didn’t quite hit the mark.

The final piece of this Prom was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathétique’. This piece originally premiered in October 1893, with the composer as conductor, and then Tchaikovsky died only nine days later. This symphony is extremely popular in the classical repertoire, but it’s not my favourite of the Tchaikovsky symphonies; I much prefer 4, 5 and 1. But it is still a beautiful piece, and the BBCSO once again were fabulous.

Only two more ‘normal’ Proms to go before Last Night! I hope everyone’s been practicing their singing!

Prom 68: Tchaikovsky, Szymanowski & Rachmaninov Review

Prom 68 was a bit back-to-front in terms of concert arrangement – it started with a symphony for the first half, a concerto following interval, and then some symphonic dances. Well, it’s good to mix things up I suppose! Prom 68 was performed by the Olso Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

The cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies continues with his Symphony No. 1 in G minor ‘Winter Daydreams’ begins Prom 68. Tchaikovsky wrote this symphony almost as soon as he’d finished university, but it is not an obvious student piece. I love that even though this is the first symphony Tchaikovsky wrote, it’s still so obviously his work. Love the first movement. Around the 24:30 minute mark, that crescendo  – wow.  That was brilliant. And the ending is a proper big, all-in finale. This symphony is not played nearly enough in the regular classical repertoire, and it needs to be. It is amazing and every bit as good as the later Tchaikovsky symphonies. More ‘Winter Daydreams’ please!

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Baiba Skride, making her Proms debut, was the first piece of the second act. This piece was nice and quite pretty, but after the fantastic Tchaikovsky symphony before interval, it felt a bit eh. The piece just doesn’t quite have the oomph of the Tchaikovsky.

Finally, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances concluded this Prom. Whereas the Tchaikovsky was the first piece he wrote out of school, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances was the last thing he wrote. I quite like this piece and it was played wonderfully by the Oslo Philharmonic. The beautiful 100 ‘Welcome with Honour’ (English translation of a Norwegian piece)  was played as an encore.

And if you haven’t, check out Becky’s blog on her Proms experiences here – she’d actually attending the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, unlike me, 10,000 miles away down here in Australia listening in on iPlayer!

Prom 67: Arvo Pärt, Britten, Berlioz & Saint-Saëns Review

In Prom 67, it finally happened. I was so completely blown away by a piece that was new to me, I have gone and bought it on iTunes. I have been waiting to be blown away by a (new) piece (for me) for the past seven week thinking it might not happen, as last year it happened on First Night with Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture ‘In London Town’. It is Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten. Prom 67 featured the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Järvi.

The Prom began with Avro Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, that he (Pärt) composed after he heard of the death of Benjamin Britten on December 4, 1976. I am a huge fan of Arvo Pärt, and, while trying not to sound too biased, this was beyond beautiful. I especially liked the bell. It is, of course, quite a solemn and almost melancholy piece, but it is just so, so beautiful. I have not yet heard a piece this Proms season that is new to me that I have loved so much.

The haunting opening was followed by Britten’s Violin Concerto with soloist Janine Jansen. I especially liked the first movement and the second movement around the 29 minute mark on iPlayer. This is probably actually one of my favourite pieces by Britten, and possibly one of my favourite violin concertos (after the Tchaikovsky one of course!).

The second act began with a piece that is practically the polar opposite of the Arvo Pärt that opened this Prom, Hector Berlioz’s overture from Le Corsaire. The pas de trios/pas de deux from the full ballet is one of best gala pieces in the ballet repertoire, and the score is fantastic. This was an excellent rendition of this overture by the Orchestre de Paris. It’s just such happy and joyous music.

Camille Saint-Saën’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, ‘Organ’, with Thierry Escaich on the organ. It isn’t until the final movement when the organ really comes into its own, but it is certainly worth the wait. This is a great symphony (especially that final movement), and a fantastic way to end what has been one of my favourite Proms of the 2013 Proms Season. The Promenaders have learnt that if they applaud and stamp for long enough, they will get an encore, and were duly rewarded with the gallop from The Ball by George Bizet. Thank-you to the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi – you were sublime. And of course, thanks to the BBC Radio 3 and iPlayer people! This a really brilliant Prom that I highly recommend listening to. Don’t miss the Avro Pärt, if nothing else.

 

Prom 58: Light Organ Prom Review

The organ in the Royal Albert Hall has 9,997 pipes, and Prom 58: Light Organ Prom, the second of three Proms performed on Bank Holiday Monday in the UK (no day off for us down here in the Antipodes!), the others being Proms Chamber Music 7 and Prom 59: The Hollywood Sound. I have been fortunate enough to hear the Royal Albert Hall organ live in action, and it is one mighty instrument.  This was a Prom without an orchestra, the only musician being organist Richard Hills. From time to time, I like to listen to The Organist Entertains on BBC Radio 2, and this Prom was very much along those lines. I do like organ music, whether it’s light, as in the Prom, or the heavier, religious music, or alongside an orchestra in a symphony or the like.

The music in Prom 58 was:

Eric Coates – March ‘Sound and Vision’
Arthur Sullivan – Mikado Memories (arr. R. Hills)
Billy Mayerl – Four Aces Suite – ‘Ace of Hearts’
Thomas Waller – A Handful of Keys (arr. R. Hills)
Edward German – Three Dances from Nell Gywn
John Ireland – Miniature Suite – Villanella

Being a bit of a fan of G&S, I very much enjoyed the Mikado Memories. Most of the G&S operas really are a variation on a theme, but it is wonderfully fun (and light) music.

The pieces by Mayerl and Waller were originally written for piano, but have been arranged for the organ. I found myself bopping away to the Waller, which is a very jazzy piece that I can easily imagine dancing along to.

The final piece of the Prom was A Children’s Overture, a medley of classic children’s songs, including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Pop Goes the Weasel and The Bells of St Clements. The Prom ended with an encore of Tiger Rags, one of the jazz standards, with a few twists added in by Hills, which again, I found myself bopping along to. An excellent finale.

The Light Organ Music Prom is exactly what the title suggests; it’s just light, happy music. If you’re not one for organ music, or have never listened to it before, this Prom would be a good place to start. If nothing else, it’ll make you smile.

Prom 59: Hollywood Rhapsody Prom Review

Prom 59 is one that I have been hanging out for. The John Wilson Orchestra, along with their founder and conductor, John Wilson, made their yearly appearance at the Proms in Prom 59: Hollywood Rhapsody Prom. The music from this Prom is from non-musical movies, but that still have feature songs and stand-out soundtracks.

They opened with the 20^th Century Fox theme tune, quickly followed by a medley of tunes (I think). I must admit, I couldn’t quite follow what music was from what, as I’m not up with my early/mid 20^th century films scores, but my goodness it is good. It’s just such wonderfully good, completely harmless fun.  The second piece was along the same lines.

The third piece was the suite from Psycho, music written by Bernard Herman. I can’t say I enjoyed it particularly, mostly because I do not like that film at all and it scare the **** out of me (we had to watch it for Media in Year 10 – not fun). And, I’ll admit, I took my earphones out during the Shower Scene part of the suite. It really does scare me! It was played very well – I just don’t like it.

This was followed by the suite from Citizen Kane, also written by Bernard Herman. This is quite different from the Psycho suite, and featured a stunning Russian soprano soloist Venera Gimadieva, who is from the Bolshoi, and she is fantastic. The first half of the Prom ended with the suite from Eric Korngold’s suite Robin Hood. This was rich and luscious and sumptuous.

The second half opened with Jemore Moross’s The Big Country opening title, and it was excellent. This was then followed by Max Stiener’s Casablanca Suite. Then came a medley of songs from early/mid-20^th century films. The soloists Matthew Ford and Jane Monheit. There were a number of very well-known songs in here, including Three Coins in a Fountain, That’s Amore, Ca Sera Sera, among others. The soloists were brilliant, and I hope to hear more of them.

This was then followed by Franz Whiteman’s A Place in the Sun, which was quite jazz-like, heavily featuring the alto-saxophone, played by Howard McGill, but I really liked it.

Next was ‘a whole lot of cat and mouse,’ Scott Bradley’s Tom and Jerry at MGM. This was clear mayhem, mischief and general anarchy, but the orchestra sounded excellent. It’s quite something when you can hear through iPlayer that the orchestra are having a good time, and it was never more evident than in this piece. This piece included dogs barking, wolf whistles, yells and smashing plates. Brilliant.

There was laughter from the audience before the beginning of the next piece (anyone know/care to share why?), Franz Waxman’s epic Ben Hur suite. “It just so happens…” that there was an encore to this Prom, the John Wilson Orchestra played Franz Waxman’s toe-tapping Taras Bulba – The Ride of the Cossacks. Amazing, wonderful stuff. Massive, very well deserved applause from a capacity Royal Albert Hall.

And the John Wilson Orchestra…well they are beyond amazing. They have quite a unique sound, and sound quite unlike any of the other orchestras that perform at the Proms. They are so full of energy (all 108 players, who hardly fit on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall!) and you can hear in their music that they are having a great time out there performing and love what they are doing. They are just sublime.

(A lot of superlatives, but I make no apologies).

(Pictures from the BBC Radio 3 Facebook page).

Prom 56 Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Review

Prom 56 almost didn’t happen, with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (Jugendorchester) getting stuck in the tunnel on the EuroStar near St Pancras on their way into London from Amsterdam earlier on Saturday. The adventures of a touring orchestra! Thankfully, they made it to the Royal Albert Hall in time, and the way they played in this Prom – well you’d never know there’d been a bit of a problem earlier! This orchestra is regarded as one of the best Youth Orchestras in Europe, and understandably so.

Richard Wagner’s Rienzi Overture was the opening piece for Prom 56, which was very good. The orchestra has played the full concert version of this opera twice recently at the Salzburg Festival, so they are well acquainted with this piece, and it shows in their playing of it. A very cheerful and uplifting piece to start this Prom.

“Heave-ho!” The second piece of this Prom was Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. I found the first movement just-going, but the second was very beautiful. The final movement too was good. There was an encore of the very beautiful piano duet The Enchanted Garden from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Thibaudet was joined by conductor Philippe Jordan to perform this encore.

After interval was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor. I was thinking that this symphony was a bit average – but the final movement is fantastic, and completely makes up the rest of the symphony only being just-going. This symphony saved Shostakovich’s life, as he had been in a bit of trouble with the Soviets at the time, but the success of this symphony (helped by that fabulous final movement – I don’t doubt!) put him back in the Soviets’ good books.

Prom 39: Holst, Nishat Khan & Vaughan Williams Review

Prom 39 was broadcast live on the BBC Asian Network, as well as BBC Radio 3, as the first act had a distinctly Indian theme. This meant that all those listening on BBC Asian Network were getting a dose of classical music rather than their usual Bollywood! As a Radio 3 listener, it is quite interesting to have these simulcasts, as it means there are different presenters for the Prom, alongside the usual Radio 3 crew. I believe that these simulcasts are a great way of getting a completely different audience engaged with classical music, which is, of course, what the Proms are all about.

Back to Prom 39…

The first piece in Gustav Holst’s suite Indra. Love it. Holst taught himself Sanskrit in the 1890’s and was rather obsessed with India and anything ‘Oriental’ as it was referred to as at the time. That was of course the height of the British Empire, and as India was the jewel in the Empire’s crown, it’s not really a big surprise that Holst was so intrigued by it. Indra was Holst’s take on what Oriental music sounded like. Of course, it’s not even close, but it is a fabulous 11 minutes or so of music. I was actually surprised as to how wonderful this piece was. I think I’d actually rank it in my list of pieces from this year’s Proms that I don’t recall hearing before but now it’s a favourite (at the end of the season, I’ll make an actual round-up list!).

The second piece was a world premiere by Indian composer Nishat Khan, The Gate of the Moon (Sitar Concerto No. 1). This piece is a combination of Western and Indian classical music, with the sitar being the most quintessentially Indian instrument. I’ll admit that I wasn’t particularly expecting to enjoy this concerto, so I was pleasantly surprised when I did. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, under conductor David Atherton, sounded beautiful while accompanying Khan on the sitar.

The final piece for Prom 39 was Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2). I thought that in the first movement, around 1:44:00, it sounded quite a bit like something out of the score of Phantom of the Opera! There was a smattering of well-deserved applause at end of first movement, as it was a grand ending. There was a smaller smattering after second (slow) movement. I particularly liked the fourth movement, around the 2:15:00 mark onwards. The music grows darker and deeper, and it’s rich and beautiful. I was hoping this symphony would end with a bag, the way the first movement did, but it ends quietly, and it really is a beautiful final.

The BBC NOW were fantastic throughout this Prom, and their entire Proms season – this Prom is the last time we’ll hear the BBC NOW at the Royal Albert Hall this Proms season. They’ll be at Caerphilly Park for Last Night, but we won’t be hearing them again from London. Thank-you BBC NOW, you have been amazing. And I think this Prom may have snuck into my (as yet unwritten) list of favourite Proms of the season.

Prom 37: Urban Classic Prom Review

Prom 37 was one of those Proms which are completely different from the usual classical line-up. This Prom was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (the home of the Proms), BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1 Extra and on BBC 3 television. I best admit now, this is not the sort of music I usually listen to at all (I’m not a Radio 1 person), and after the second act had been going for about half an hour (so I’d already listened to the whole first act), I was getting a bit sick of it. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, because it was, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra were excellent. This sort of music just isn’t my thing, at least, not in large doses, like this. This Prom was very different for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and it is a completely different way to hear modern music with a full 90-piece orchestra.

A lot of this music, and all of these musicians, are not well known in Australia, or are not known at all. Out of this line-up, the only one I had heard of was Laura Mvula, and that’s because she was on the Graeme Norton Show earlier this year.

There were some serious fan-girls in the audience, especially for singer Fazer (who, I’m going to admit, I’ve never heard of!), and who were screaming while Radio 3’s Clemency Burton-Hill introduced the show (and did a good bit of screaming whenever Fazer performed).

Laura Mvula sang two pieces (that I can remember) in the first act. She’s very, very good and I don’t know why she’s not more well-known in Australia. The first song of hers was “Sing to the Moon”, which I liked. I can’t remember the name of the second song, but she is an amazing singer.

The second act goes for over an hour, and I did struggle to get through it. Is this how people how never listen to classical music feel when they listen to it? Do they ever force themselves to listen to over two hours of it? It all just starts sounding a bit the same. But I did make it through to the end, with the great Bob Marley song “One Love”, with a rap verse added in, for good measure, I suppose. I made it to the end! *Fan-girl scream*.

Photo by Ally Davies.

Prom 35: Mahler ‘Resurrection Symphony’ Review

Conductor Mariss Jansons

Prom 35 featured only the one piece, Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2 in C minor ‘Resurrection’. This really is a massive, epic symphony, and I don’t believe anyone wrote these properly big symphonies quite like Mahler did (think his Symphony No. 8 ‘Symphony of a Thousand’). It was the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus who performed this huge work, conducted by Mariss Jansons, along with soloists Genia Kühmeier and Gerhild Romberger.

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is so beautiful, it’s almost hard to describe. If you’ve never heard it, pop over to the BBC iPlayer website, and have a listen. The performance of this symphony in this Prom is fantastic, and the soloists, especially mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, sung so beautifully.

The BBC Proms team on Twitter re-tweeted Daily Telegraph journalist Will Heaven’s comment that this work is one of the few that seem tailor-made for the massive spaces of the Royal Albert Hall, and indeed it does. This is the kind of music that the RAH was made for, and it sounded sublime via iPlayer, so I can only imagine it live, filling the RAH right to the back of the gallery (props to the BBC Radio 3 sound engineers too!).