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Ron Dough
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« on: 14:33:53, 09-07-2007 » |
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A few weeks ago, when I was down in the stores searching out stuff for the trek, I came across a box of programmes which contained, amongst other things, the Proms 1984 prospectus. I'm not sure why I should have bought it, since I was in a long-running show for the entire year (unless it was to see what was worth taping). But it strikes me that it might be interesting to compare what was on offer then with what we have now. The first night, for example:
Friday 20th July 1984
Vaughan Williams
Symphony No.2 (London) (46 mins)
Elgar
Sea Pictures (24 mins)
Interval
Walton
Belshazzar's Feast (33 mins)
Janet Baker mezzo-soprano
Stephen Roberts baritone
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
London Philharmonic Choir
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Sir John Pritchard
Friday 13th July 2007
Walton
Overture 'Portsmouth Point' (6 mins)
Elgar
Concerto for Cello in E minor (28 mins)
Interval
Beethoven
Symphony No.9 in D minor, 'Choral' (70 mins)
Paul Watkins cello
Maria Haan soprano
Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano
Paul Groves tenor
René Pape bass
Philharmonia Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Belohlávek conductor
Just for starters: two composers in common and only a minute's difference in projected running times.
But if a time machine were available and you could attend either, which might you choose, and why?
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David_Underdown
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« Reply #1 on: 14:41:25, 09-07-2007 » |
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Probably the first, put that would partly be the lure of actually hearing Dame Janet live. Mind you, the prospect of the current BBC So dong B9 is not exactly filling me with great anticiaption - my wife is strongly considering leaving at the interval...
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David
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #2 on: 13:24:39, 10-07-2007 » |
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Both second days contain two concerts: here are the main events.
Saturday 21st July 1984 (at 7.00)
Walton
Coronation March: Crown Imperial (8 mins)
Violin Concerto (30 mins)
Interval
Holst
The Planets (51 mins)
Salvatore Accardo violin
Philharmonia Chorus (women’s voices) (sic)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by Bernard Haitink
Saturday 14th July 2007
In the year of BAFTA's 60th anniversary and the month that BBC TWO begins its Summer of British Film, a wide-ranging feast of some of the finest scores. John Wilson directs a celebration of the vivid musical colour that composers have brought to the silver screen through more than 60 years of British film-making.
Walton
Battle of Britain - 'Battle In The Air' (5 mins)
Lambert
Anna Karenina – Suite (10 mins)
Vaughan Williams
The 49th Parallel - Prelude (2 mins)
Adler
Genevieve – Waltz (3 mins)
Maurice Jarre
Lawrence of Arabia - Theme (3.30 mins)
Easdale
The Red Shoes - Suite (15 mins)
Arnold
Bridge On The River Kwai – March (3 mins)
Interval
Ireland
The Overlanders – March – Scorched Earth (4.30 mins)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett
Love Theme From 'Yanks' (3.30 mins)
Eric Rogers
Carry On... Medley (7 mins)
Patrick Doyle
Much Ado About Nothing - Overture (4.20 mins)
Stephen Warbeck
Shakespeare In Love (5 mins)
Debbie Wiseman
Wilde – Suite (4.30 mins)
John Powell/Harry Gregson-Williams
Chicken Run (4 mins)
Addison
A Bridge Too Far (3.30 mins)
John Williams
Harry Potter - Harry's Wondrous World (4.30 mins)
Coates
The Dam Busters (3.45 mins)
Richard E. Grant narrator
Philip Achille Harmonica
Cynthia Millar Ondes Martenot
BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson conductor
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increpatio
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« Reply #3 on: 15:36:18, 10-07-2007 » |
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Don't think there's any competition there for me; fondness for Holst combined with an indifference to going to performances of film music rather tip the scales.
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #4 on: 15:49:08, 10-07-2007 » |
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Ron, Like Mrs Malaprop, I'm inclined to think that comparisons are odorous, as much of the Proms programming become a matter of mindset, on reflection, rather than for any intrinsic value. I often browse through the complete season brochures for the past few decades and how my heart pangs when I realise, say, that seeing Adrian Boult conduct Elgar's First Symphony, in the 1976 season, was also a farewell to his appearances on the podium.
Arthur Jacobs's Henry J Wood; Maker of the Proms; is also an indicator of the shifting sands over the years and helps me to understand that the past really is a far country. Today, I can more readily identify with the specific inclusion of composers throughout the season.
How canny of you to highlight the Saturday evening Film Night Prom as it will invoke so many memories for listeners. John Ireland's March from Harry Watts's "Overlanders" is probably the most neglected item. Chips Rafferty leading a cattle trek across an bleak landscape (black & white) reminds me of commercial cinema in the post-war years; and although I had only left school, Brian Easdales score for "The Red Shoes" - proffered by a sinister Leonide Massine - gradually led my ears in the direction of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Incidentally, this very day, I've got the 22CD set "Works of Igor Stravinsky" from HMV, York, for £22.
Many of the more familiar scores may remind older listeners of the voices of Jean Metcalfe/Cliff Mitchelmore on Two Way Family Favourites - cue Andre Kostelanetz (spelling suspect) and cascading strings! And, in the following programme, Bill Cotton was inclined to butcher Eric Coates's Dam Busters march, along with a ghastly narration. "P for poppsie, over to B for Bertie..."
Overall, I think that "Timber" would have approved.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #5 on: 16:11:20, 10-07-2007 » |
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Oh, The Rivals, Stanley: memories of a Rep. production and our poor Bob Acres gradually driving himself towards a breakdown, which happened on stage, frighteningly...
I trust you managed to collect that Boult Elgar 1 when it was issued by BBC MM last year? My original thoughts on looking at Saturday's programme was that it was all rather 'Friday Night is Music Night" until I remembered that since my Prom memories (as an audient, at least) belong to the Glock era, when things were with rare exceptions rather serious, my view of the Proms is alien to their original ambience. (And if Saturday's rather FNiMN, then what am I to make of the Michael Ball night, later?)
I have to admit that for the second day in a row, I'd rather have been in 1984 than 2007, at least when it comes to the Proms. We hit 100 degrees F on stage at the Palladium that summer, as we also had the previous year: no air conditioning and a dressing room with one tiny window which opened out onto an airless well.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #6 on: 17:13:00, 10-07-2007 » |
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how my heart pangs when I realise, say, that seeing Adrian Boult conduct Elgar's First Symphony, in the 1976 season, was also a farewell to his appearances on the podium.
Not quite a farewell, Stanley. As well as that marvellous Elgar 1, I heard him a few days later that season doing a very fine Beethoven 6. The first half of that latter concert was Mackerras conducting the Glagolitic Mass. They certainly didn't stint on the pre-interval 'warm up' slot in those days  . I think Boult conducted a number of ballet performances for both the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet after that, didn't he? (But possibly not on a podium  .) |
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #7 on: 21:42:31, 10-07-2007 » |
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# 5 and 6
My memory unfurls its lengthy scroll before me -
I shudder, and I curse, but I do not efface the wistful lines PUSHKIN
Ron The Rivals. Snap! Happily I enjoyed playing Bob Acres and found a great deal of affection in the character, rather than a clod-hopping gadabout. Director Derek Goldby ( later Rosen & Guilden at N.T.) introduced us to the score of Handel's Love in Bath, arr. Beecham between scenes and the music set the mood. We desperately need a fresh look at this score and arrangement. It has magic.
I'm also looking forward to Michael Ball's evening - "Ouch, 'ere missus, that 'urt". I saw his one man show at The Donmar about 5 years ago and his performance in Sondheim's "Passion" had strength and sensitivity. His own show included material by Arlen, Gershwin, Weill, Leiber & Stoller, Dietz & Schwartz, Cole Porter, Sondheim and Jacques Brel and he communicates with ease, although the vast space of the R.A.H. will be a real test.
George. Now this really is a puzzlement. I had instant recall about the Glagolitic Mass broadcast under Chas Mackerras (still at the height of his ENO years?) but drew a blank on the Boult Pastoral, at the same time. 1976 was a particularly hot summer I DO recall several late night Proms at St Augustine's, Kilburn, as well as Britten's ballad opera "Paul Bunyan" in a stifling Sadler's Wells Theatre.
Incidentally, George, I was tempted to visit friends at St Albans (Hillside) for "The Kingdom" at the Cathedral but I'm still doing penance after my visit, last year, when two Joyce Grenfell volunteers got into a real pickle with the till and reels of paper spewed forth to register my payment of £2 25p and, since I had the right coinage, I tried to charm them into auditing my accurate computing and leaving well alone. But I was more than compensated by a rehearsal of Bach partitas in exquisite performances. Memorable.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #8 on: 22:40:57, 10-07-2007 » |
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two Joyce Grenfell volunteers got into a real pickle with the till and reels of paper spewed forth to register my payment of £2 25p and, since I had the right coinage, I tried to charm them into auditing my accurate computing and leaving well alone...
 That is very St Albans, Stanley, so you were obviously given the full and authentic Cathedral experience. We have teams of Joyce Grenfell volunteers matched with unpredictable tills for just that purpose. I always find it advisable to set aside a full morning at least when I buy a ticket for anything. |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #9 on: 08:48:30, 11-07-2007 » |
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And how about the other Proms on the second day?
Saturday 21 July 1984
Royal Albert Hall at 9.30pm
Court and Country
Music and Dance from Korea (c.75 mins)
Yullyo Akhoe
Saturday 14 July 2007
Matinee Prom: Cadogan Hall at 3.00pm
Today's Shakespeare themed programme of music and speech draws on the enchanted spirit-world of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream music and Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing, popularly championed in its violin-and-piano incarnation. Bridge's 'impression', inspired by Gertrude's description of Ophelia's suicide in Hamlet, contrasts with Shostakovich's music for the same play.
There will be no interval.
Mendelssohn
A Midsummer Night's Dream - excerpts (16 mins)
Korngold
Much Ado About Nothing - Suite (20 mins)
Stravinsky
Three Songs from William Shakespeare (7 mins)
Bridge
There is a willow grows aslant a brook (10 mins)
Shostakovich
Hamlet – Suite from the incidental music, Op. 32a (20 mins)
Anna Dennis mezzo-soprano
Speakers to be announced
Britten Sinfonia
Alexander Shelley conductor
Memories of a time when Radio 3's broadcasting of world music concentrated on representing other classical traditions: a group of eight musicians and three dancers from the National Classical Music Institute of Korea.
"Items in the Prom programme will include loud and penetrating military processional music; a refined and brilliantly costumed court dance called the Nightingale Dance; delicate and restrained vocal music accompanied by instrumental ensemble; virtuoso solo music for long zither, accompanied by drum; folk and relgious dancing; and raucous, improvised instrumental music with shamanistic connections."
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smittims
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« Reply #10 on: 09:08:18, 11-07-2007 » |
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I'd go to the earlier First Night;in fact I remember hearing it broadcast. It was very good.
The Ninth is done so often these days ,and one hears so many great performances of it from the past that I find it impossobleto hear a new one without comparing it (usually very unfavourably) with Klemperer or Furtwangler.
It might even be a good idea to have a moratorium on new performances for ten years, inte same way that a leading modern theologian suggestsed a ten-year ban onthe use of the word 'God',so that we might approach it afresh .
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time_is_now
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« Reply #11 on: 11:02:20, 11-07-2007 » |
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Oh dear Ron, that's three in a row where I'd rather have been back in 1984. I do hate things that give the appearance the past was better than the present, because it's not always the case, but it does seem to be here. a leading theologian suggested a ten-year ban on the use of the word 'God' Who on earth was that??! |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #12 on: 11:32:33, 11-07-2007 » |
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tinners, I have a hunch that when we reach the main programmes for the Monday, your choice may be a tad more difficult, although I'm rather expecting that I know which you'll eventually select...
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #13 on: 13:52:49, 11-07-2007 » |
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There’s no need of our theoretical time machine for the first Sunday, since in 1984 the seven day week was yet to become a permanent feature of the Proms, and that particular day was without a concert.
(Readers with freeview or satellite and a time machine of the recording variety might however care to note that the first Sunday Prom of 2007 will be televised on BBC4.)
Sunday 15 July at 7.00pm
Sir John Eliot Gardiner has long championed French Baroque music. Tonight's excerpts from Rameau's stage works include dazzling dance sequences with specially created choreography by the Paris-based Compagnie Roussat-Lubek, and feature players from the Buskaid Soweto String Project, which brings high-level string training to young underprivileged South Africans. This is contrasted with the austerely sacred world of Campra's neglected Requiem Mass.
Campra
Messe de Requiem (50 mins)
Interval
Rameau
Music from Zaïs, Dardanus, Les fêtes d'Hébé & Les Boréades (25 mins)
Dances from Platée & Hippolyte et Aricie (15 mins)
Music from Castor et Pollux, Naïs & Les Boréades (24 mins)
Anders Dahlin Tenor
Katharine Fuge Soprano
Lawrence Wallington Bass
Julia Doyle Soprano
Marc Molomot Tenor
Nicholas Mulroy Tenor
Matthew Brook Bass
Rosemary Nalden Director
Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble
Dance For All
Rosemary Nalden director
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
Compagnie Roussat-Lubek
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor
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time_is_now
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« Reply #14 on: 14:05:20, 11-07-2007 » |
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RON YOU'VE JUST SAVED MY LIFE. I THOUGHT SAM HAYDEN WAS ON SUNDAY WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN A COMPLETE DISASTER.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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