I wasn't able to hear all of it unfortunately but was very impressed with what I did hear. Excellent work from the chorus in particular. The only slight disappointment I felt was Anthony Dean Griffey but perhaps I was expecting too much having heard great things about him. Otherwise it would be difficult to imagine a better set of soloists.

I don't know if it felt like this in the hall, eruanto, but like last week's Gotterdamerung, it came across on the radio as one of those rare and precious occasions when the audience was wholly caught up with the work and their concentration and attention added to the performance. Petroc T descibed it as a 'packed' hall which surprised me a bit given recent lowish attendances and the fact that it was one of the 'non Gerontius' oratorios. Very attentive packed, if so.

water bottles cannot be subtly handled, it seems. A good job they weren't any bigger.

The website's description of the soloists is rather unhelpful - which was singing Jesus, for example?? I'm guessing it's Alan Opie, by process of elimination - it certainly wasn't Rose, and I can't imagine that voice being described as a "Wotan in the making", as was Rutherford's in the Pre-Prom Talk. Whoever it was I didn't like his voice at all, and found myself stifling a few snickers.

Incredible it was only the second Proms performance. 

But George, did you not hear all those loud bangs at the intermissions? That was soloists knocking water bottles over. And over again.

Thanks for that info! I shall make a mental note to avoid Opie at all costs...

Well, I was in the second row of the arena, so most of them (certainly from the soloists) were crystal-clear

If I were a believer, then I dare say it could have been annoying, but as it is, just fine and dandy!

This concert got a rave review in the Guardian, the first Prom this year to get a full five stars, I think. The reviewer (Tim Ashley), a self-confessed Elgar sceptic, said he was "blown away" by it, which "is the highest complement [sic] I can pay it."

I'm a bit of an Elgar sceptic but I missed the concert. I must try to catch a repeat or try Listen Again.

Well, I was wholly caught up and everyone around me seemed to be paying close attention, too - most of them following the text through the programme (though the couple next to me in the first part had a score and hadn't mastered the skill of turning the pages silently).  It was engrossing.  I don't have a recording of this, and I'm not sure I'd listen to one very often, but it is the kind of piece that, in a live performance, holds your attention so you fail to notice an hour passing - which, I suppose, makes it nearly half as good as the first part of Goetterdaemmerung (joke!!).


Packed is accurate but perhaps a bit misleading.  We were certainly crammed together in the circle on seat allocation but there were several dozen empty seats together behind and to the sides.  Some of us took advantage of this to enjoy a more comfortable second half - though, as I said, the passage of time and the mild discomfort were not of major importance given the quality of the music and the performance.  Other parts of the hall seemed to have fewer spaces than our side of the circle.

And the organ was in fine voice (though the poor organist must still be having nightmares about one jarring single blast towards the end of an otherwise creditable performance) - looking forward to Bluebeard tonight.