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thompson1780
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« on: 23:41:44, 13-07-2007 » |
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Inspired by Ron's 1984 v 2007 thread, I went to my 'programmes collection' to find that the first proms season I went to was 1986. Only went to 9 concerts, but heard lots on Radio 3.
Anyway, first night was 18/7/86
Mahler Symphony No.8 in E flat major "Symphony of a Thousand"
Johanna Meier, Elisabeth Connell, Alison Hargan, Ildiko Kornlosi, Birgit Finnila, Reiner Goldberg, Bernd Weikl, Kurt Rydl
BBC Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Tiffin School Boys' Choir
BBC SO
Lorin Maazel
but my highlight (which I went to) was on Thursday 28/8/86
Elgar Enigma Variations
Shoskavoich Sympny No.10
LPO / Haitink
Anyone else got any fond memories?
By the way, I have the proms guides for 1986-1992, 1994-1999 if anyone is interested in filling in any gaps.....
Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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Chichivache
Posts: 128
The artiste formerly known as Gabrielle d’Estrées
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« Reply #1 on: 13:55:00, 15-07-2007 » |
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Tommo - I have all the guides back to...1974! Can I really be that old?! Have been to at least one Prom every year except one when I was working in Africa.
I have to say the most memorable Prom was a semi-staged production of Lulu with Christine Schafer very sexy in the title role. Still gets me drooling...
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wotthehell toujours gai archy
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George Garnett
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« Reply #2 on: 14:04:38, 15-07-2007 » |
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I have all the Proms Guides going back to......1964  except in those days, when of course the entire population was educated to speak fluent Latin, it was called the 'Proms Prospectus'. Looking back at them it's often the ones I didn't go to that make me weep. |
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« Last Edit: 14:17:30, 15-07-2007 by George Garnett »
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martle
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« Reply #3 on: 14:06:52, 15-07-2007 » |
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Sorry everyone, shameless nostalgic and off-topic posting follows...
My very first Prom was in 1975(?). It was Marriner and AoSMitF, with Brendel doing either a Mozart or a Beethoven (can't remember). But what I DO remember was a simply electrifying performance of Walton Sonata for strings (the A minor quartet arrangement) that had me buzzing for weeks afterwards and even now retrospectively has me shaking slightly with excitement. It was one of the experiences that made me resolve to be a composer. For better or worse.
(PS. I do not, nor do I ever intend, or expect to be able to afford, to live on Ischia.)
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Green. Always green.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #4 on: 14:12:16, 15-07-2007 » |
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Goddit! 25 August 1975 ASMF/Brendel/Marriner Haydn Symphony No 49 Walton Sonata for Strings Mozart Piano Concerto No 19, K459 Beethoven: Grosse Fuge (A string quartet arranged for string orchestra theme emerging there.) I always think of Brighton as the 'Ischia of the North', Martle, so I reckon you have made it  . |
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« Last Edit: 15:10:07, 15-07-2007 by George Garnett »
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #5 on: 22:38:09, 15-07-2007 » |
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Inspired by Ron's 1984 v 2007 thread, I went to my 'programmes collection' to find that the first proms season I went to was 1986. Only went to 9 concerts, but heard lots on Radio 3.
Anyway, first night was 18/7/86
Mahler Symphony No.8 in E flat major "Symphony of a Thousand"
Johanna Meier, Elisabeth Connell, Alison Hargan, Ildiko Kornlosi, Birgit Finnila, Reiner Goldberg, Bernd Weikl, Kurt Rydl
BBC Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Tiffin School Boys' Choir
BBC SO
Lorin Maazel
but my highlight (which I went to) was on Thursday 28/8/86
Elgar Enigma Variations
Shoskavoich Sympny No.10
LPO / Haitink
Anyone else got any fond memories?
By the way, I have the proms guides for 1986-1992, 1994-1999 if anyone is interested in filling in any gaps.....
Tommo
I remember the Mahler 8 very well - my first live Prom! A very fine performance too, as I recall. And I was back a couple of nights later for Monteverdi's Orfeo, in a semi-staged performance directed by Norrington - hearing the work for the first time and being drawn completely into the action, despite the fact that the action was taking place on a very small raised stage and I was in the gallery. And later in that season, a roof-raising performance of Turangalila by the NYO under Elder. I feel a foray into the attic to dig out those old Proms guides coming on ... |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #6 on: 23:34:53, 15-07-2007 » |
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If GG has the 1965 Prospectus to hand, he should have the date of my first visit: I was a boarder at a state grammar school, and the Prom was on the last night of term: there were several dayboys going, and I really wanted to join them, but there was no way that I'd have been allowed out. Then suddenly, with less than a week's notice, the end of term was brought forward by a day, making the trip possible after all...
Royal Opera House Orchestra/Boult: Mendelssohn: Overture The Fair Melusine
Bartok: Violin Concerto No.2 (Yehudi Menuhin violin)
Bach: Partita for Solo Violin
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.4 in F minor.
I think there were two or three further visits that year, but while my programmes are in storage I'm a mite confused. I think there were two conducted by Sargent, one with the Sibelius Violin Concerto (Henrik Szeryng) and Third Symphony with a Belshazzar's Feast (Forbes Robinson). The other was his seventieth birthday concert with the Elgar Cello Concerto with DuPré, Holst's Hymn of Jesus, Walton's The Twelve and Elgar's Second Symphony - or have I got myself hopelessly confused over something that happened 44 years ago? Help needed if possible, GG!
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Alison
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« Reply #7 on: 00:08:16, 16-07-2007 » |
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Tommo
Did you know that the Proms 86 performance of the Enigma Variations you attended is available on CD ? LPO own label.
c/w Elgar Introduction and Allegro
Britten - Our Hunting Fathers
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George Garnett
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« Reply #8 on: 00:45:13, 16-07-2007 » |
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Well, let's have a look, Ron. I can't resist this sort of thing (though I would prefer it if you could refrain from using phrases like "44 years ago"*). Yup, there's the Boult one, exactly as you remember: Wednesday 21 July 1965. The two Sargent ones (both with the BBCSO): Thursday 5 August: Again, exactly as you remember, plus Sibelius Lemminkainen as a starter before the Violin Concerto. The Sargent 70th Birthday Concert was on Wednesday 1 September and was again as you remember except (in the prospectus anyway, these things can sometimes change) the Walton work which opened the programme was the Coronation Te Deum rather than The Twelve. Very impressive memory banks! I went to five Proms in 1965 but sadly we didn't overlap, at least not that year. [* Or even "42 years ago", come to think of it  ] |
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« Last Edit: 00:49:55, 16-07-2007 by George Garnett »
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #9 on: 01:16:13, 16-07-2007 » |
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Many thanks, GG; my maths really isn't that bad, a slip of the finger, maybe. Yes: the Coronation Te Deum: that's right. There was another Walton Concert, too: was that another year? The Viola Concerto (Frederick Riddle?) Façade, conducted by the composer, with Hermione Gingold and Russell Oberlin, and in the second half a storming Tchaik Five (LSO/George Hurst). Perhaps an overture too, Portsmouth Point? Perhaps a couple of years later, Boulez/BBCSO Varèse: Arcana and Ionisation, Stravinsky Requiem Canticles, Zvezdoliki/Roi des étoiles, Le Sacre. Schubert: Octet (Melos Ensemble), Britten: The Burning Fiery Furnace (a staged performance in the round in the Arena): English Opera Group almost as per the Decca recording, except that Kenneth MacDonald played the Pears part. Sadly he died soon afterwards, before his fiftieth birthday, I think, though he did leave a few recordings, including the Decca Midsummer Night's Dream, where he sings Pears's original rôle of Francis Flute. |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #10 on: 01:51:41, 16-07-2007 » |
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Yup, that Walton/Tchaikovsky one was 1965 too. Friday 27 August. Correct in every particular except the soloist in the Viola Concerto was Herbert Downes rather than Frederick Riddle (again, at least according to the prospectus). The Melos Ensemble did the Facade. I remember that Facade very well but on the wireless rather than in the hall. Hermione Gingold doing a very naughty and over the top caricature of Edith Sitwell IIRC?
Schubert Octet/Britten Burning Fiery Furnace was Monday 24 July 1967. I can't resist listing the members of the Melos Ensemble at that time because they were all incredible individual players and the names just bring back those exciting times:
Emanuel Hurwitz (violin)
Ivor McMahon (violin)
Cecil Aronowitz (viola)
Wiliam Pleeth (cello)
Adrian Beers (double-bass)
Jack Brymer (clarinet)
William Waterhouse (bassoon)
Neill Sanders (horn)
And the Boulez one you mention was Thursday 1 August 1968 (at least, grabs Mr Dough's lapels, 'those are all the right works, but not necessarily <beat> in the right order"). The soloists were Yvonne Minton and Gunter Reich. (Blimey, August 1968, eh? Heady days.)
Enough nostalgia for tonight. To bed!
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« Last Edit: 01:58:16, 16-07-2007 by George Garnett »
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #11 on: 09:51:51, 16-07-2007 » |
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Didn't mean to keep you up that late, GG, but many thanks. Yes, Herbert Downes was the violist: Riddle's on a recording,isn't he?
The Boulez prom was in the order Arcana, Requiem Canticles, Ionisation first half, Zvedoliki, Sacre second, no? (I may have mentioned before that on one of my commutes from Carnoustie to darn Sarf in the early nineties, when my plan of action was to leave very early in the morning, I stopped for breakfast at Southwaite services, south of Carlisle, and for some unusual reason happened to buy, or at least find, a copy of the Daily Telegraph; scanning the radio pages I noticed that that very concert was to be broadcast in the archive slot that afternoon, starting at 2pm. I managed to get through the door at 1.55, leaving barely enough time to fire up the tuner, PCM adaptor and Betamax recorder ready for recording. Most of the other Proms I went to in my teens are preserved on low-fi mono tapes, but just this one alone exists in a half-decent digital transfer - atmospherics were rather noisy that day.)
And yes, Gingold, in a blue and turquoise gown, was simply outrageous.
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« Last Edit: 09:53:33, 16-07-2007 by Ron Dough »
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