Well I was on the rail for the Boulez and Birtwistle Prom, and lapped up both works, tired as I was. Dérive 2 was really quite a softee. Delightfully lyrical, even. I somehow got to be right at the front of the queue by the time we got downstairs to the Arena door (those previously in front of me had all been directed elsewhere to have their bags searched, my carrier bag being waved through). Anyway, while waiting just outside the RAH, beforehand, old Harry rounded the corner, approached the woman in front of me in the queue and engaged in osculatory contact with her, then ask why she was queueing. Answer? She wanted to be on the rail. So, occasional gent that I can be, when she eventually arrived in the Arena, post search, I summoned her to the place I had saved beside me on the rail. Turned out she had sung in quite a few of old Harry's works over time. Sorry, I have no idea who she was. Neither have I any idea where in the Arena t_i_n was for the second Prom, though we did meet up again afterwards. Neither of us saw anything of autoharp.

George - Tea through nostrils moment before it's even 9.30!

At this point, I'd normally be having a second listen, but due to entirely to my own stupidity, last night's concerts became the Dough Archive's first casualties of the Prom season, though I do have the earlier one on video and it will have a second broadcast anyway.

 Elsewhere Milly has mentioned listening to the Boulez and enjoying it; with the proviso that it was rather longer than I needed it to be, I enjoyed it, too. Bryn's description of it as a 'softee' certainly makes sense: not a hard passive listen at all, indeed there were moments when it almost seemed to have strayed into some sort of hyper post-minimalist territory, although, since it's one of those works where virtually every bar has a different time signature, that must be a purely auditory phenomenon.

I'm not au fait with the original, but I can sympathise with anyone who is, and found that the renovations and extensions had destroyed its native character completely. Sounded like one hell of an committed performance, at any rate. Same sort of goes for the Birtwistle, but would it be ungracious to wish there had been one of the other vocal ensembles who co-commissioned it singing instead? The BBC Singers for all their accuracy have that same old rather squally, tired sound, which does most of the material they tackle no favours at all.