PROMS 2017!

[mercalia]

well last night seems rather muffled and dull - well I had been listening to an excellent recorded mass sung by Organum of Marcel Peres. A recording I can recommend -

Lux Perpetua Requiem/Anthonius Divitis, Antoine De Fevin - Aeon label AECD 1216

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00694VORE/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

reminds me why I never go to the Proms

 

[Tony L]

I can't be doing with the last night so only watched the first 'proper' bit before all the nationalistic bollocks. I enjoyed the Chineke BME orchestra a lot yesterday, they had a real enthusiasm and punch to them somehow and it sounded more dynamic sound-wise than most of it too.

 

[George J]

Thank goodness for a non-political last night. Just bit of candy-floss! Nothing wrong with that!

 

[alanbeeb]

I wish they would stop this nonsense with operatic sopranos singing Broadway show songs. It sounds dreadful and all wrong.

 

[Cereal Killer]

I've been a number of times now, and being at the front of the stalls last week I realised I really need to properly prom at least once in my life. Maybe next year.

Be prepared, take a yoga mat, a picnic and ideally a young brunette to share said stuff with.

 

[Barrymagrec]

I wish they would stop this nonsense with operatic sopranos singing Broadway show songs. It sounds dreadful and all wrong.

I`m inclined to agree although I thought she was rather better at it than many.

 

[Whaleblue]

Be prepared, take a yoga mat, a picnic and ideally a young brunette to share said stuff with.

Good advice.

Though the only young brunette likely to accompany me is my daughter - but that's fine!

 

[adamdea]

Just been to the RAH to watch it, was bliss laying down on the galley floor listening

cant imagine you saw very much from there. I can assure you that Andras Schiff just sat and played the piano though, so you didn't miss much. Still it did sound amazing

 

[Barrymagrec]

I don`t know if anyone heard the R3 interval interview with Harold Beck who has been going to the Proms for eighty years, I thought the name was familiar and yes, he was an old school friend of my Dad who is still in occasional touch with him!

 

[Cereal Killer]

cant imagine you saw very much from there. I can assure you that Andras Schiff just sat and played the piano though, so you didn't miss much. Still it did sound amazing

The experience for me is the music, atmosphere and acoustics of the hall. watching them play distracts IMHO.

 

[George J]

I do find that watching great musicians perform is not helpful. Close your eyes and take in the music making!

In my view a very good place for listening [to Three Choirs performances] in Hereford Cathedral is from the Lady chapel, behind the Alter. No sight line at all except the CCTV monitors. The musical balances are perfect, and the volume of sound is never close to deafening!

On the whole, I think Hereford is a much better acoustic for large scale musical performance than the RAH ...

ATB from George

 

[Cereal Killer]

Never been there, I can also recommend Durham cathedral, choir/chamber music in particular. RAH wasn't a successful design initially, it took a lot of treatment and modification to get it where it is today.

 

[George J]

The RAH today is a better venue for tennis or boxing than music.

I find it amazing that music is still played there. It is better to listen to RAH concerts on the radio than actually go there, unless the atmosphere is actually more important than the music. The only reason the Proms are done there is the destruction of the Queens Hall, which really was a great concert hall ...

 

[Cereal Killer]

There's actually not that many top acoustic venues in the U.K. TBH !!

 

[gingermrkettle]

Get close enough to the rail promming (definitely in front of the fountain) and the acoustics matter a lot less.

 

[George J]

Get too close to the performance and the musical balance is horribly skewed to the players nearest the front of the ensemble. The best place to listen in a good concert hall it about from half way back to the very back.

The idea that being in the front row of a concert is ideal is reflected in the price. These are some of the cheapest seats [or standing room] in the house.

 

[gingermrkettle]

To be frank, being 15 feet from Petra Lang belting it out is worth being towards the front. But then, I'm used to playing in orchestras myself.

 

[Mike Reed]

Benn watching 'Last Night' off and on for 50 + years, but I was transfixed with last night's performance; or rather, its s.q. Staggeringly good through my cans and a new can-opener. I've watched through simulcasts (with R3) in the past, but went off the digital signals after the switch-over.

Whether the engineers were especially adept at placing mics or my new amp. is better than it should be, I don't know, but the Senn's never left my head all evening. Actually the rendition of Finlandia, normally an old pot-boiler, was probably the best I've heard; very moving (well, he is Finnish, I s'pose).

 

[George J]

To be frank, being 15 feet from Petra Lang belting it out is worth being towards the front. But then, I'm used to playing in orchestras myself.

So was I in the olden days. and the last place to get a full picture of a great musical performance is from within the orchestra! Former professional double bass player and teacher of the instrument ...

 

[TheDecameron]

I don`t know if anyone heard the R3 interval interview with Harold Beck who has been going to the Proms for eighty years, I thought the name was familiar and yes, he was an old school friend of my Dad who is still in occasional touch with him!

I heard him Barry, thought it was great to have someone describing such a long history of Proms attendance.
I was chatting to a man at the EIF last year- we were trying to work out which Edinburgh Verdi Requiem we were both saying we had attended- I said "Maggio Musicali Fiorentino with James Conlon about 25 years ago?" He said "no it was Calas.....eh,1949". I couldn't believe he was that old looking at him.