Allright, so it was a bit of a daft starter.

So, what would you like Dodgy Woger to programme next year?

Tommo

What could we expect from the man who gave us THE RING IN A DAY or A BACH CHRISTMAS??   I suppose the answer really depends on what the question is..   what would we like or what do we think is likely to be served-up (based on our knowledge of his previous form and modus operandi.  Given that Jolly Rodger's previous experience of working with live music is limited to having it slashed it from the R3 schedules and turned it into "recorded live",  the prognosis isn't a good one. We also need to bear in mind that the 2008 Proms are probably already heavily pencilled anyhow - you don't get artists of that calibre busking on Waterloo Bridge between scanty engagements

Perhaps I'd better instead call this "What I'd have liked if Roger Wright wasn't in charge":

• 2008 is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, the most colossal extra-terrestrial impact our planet is known to have experienced.  I would by now as Proms Controller have a commission in hand with a major Russian composer (let's say Desyatnikov) for a large-scale orchestral/choral oratorio-style piece to mark this anniversary (since the "strike" occurred in the middle of Siberia)
• I would want five new commissions from female composers, to make-up for their total omission from this year's Proms
• I'd like a concert performance of a French baroque opera directed by William Christie
• I would like the Glyndebourne prom to be a full staged performance, using either the Coliseum or Drury Lane as the venue - to make a Glyndebourne performance available for popular Proms prices
• I'd like a Handel oratorio directed by Phillipe Herreweghe
• Since the world will be going Beijing-bananas because of the Olympic Games, I'd like a staged performance of Chinese Classical Music
• I would like a concert performance of DIE WALKURE with the ROH RING cast and Pappano conducting
• I'd like an all-night concert of Indian Ragas, with indian snack food available
• I'd like a concert of music by Dunstable, Power, and their contemporaries
  
• 2008 will mark the 100th Anniversary of 1908, and Mr Sydney Grew will give an illustrated lecture-concert of a programme of his choosing, showing why 1908 was - in his opinion - the watershed for classical music as we know it.

Not to mention - oh dear, I'll have to - Olivier Messiaen. Come on, chaps, something big. St François in concert. Or La Transfiguration. Or both.

Hear bloody hear but alas too bloody late unless they were already asked about a bloody year ago... 

That's what I was referring to when I said the die is already cast for 2008  Let's hope they at least haven't forgotten Messiaen for next year...   but there's no guarantee, is there?   I suppose they could quickly squeeze an organ recital on the ROH instrument into a Sunday afternoon event if they have (   It's also what I meant when I said Wodger has little experience of working with live music, and none of working with composers... for him, music comes "on tap" from cds.   In fairness to anyone picking up the reins of a music festival of this stature,  a lot of the first year ought to have been set in place by his predecessor....

I don't think that's quite fair, Reiner. During his time as director of the British Music Information Centre (which in those days was also a regular concert venue for contemporary music), 1978-87 or so, he got to know more composers than most people (including composers!) do in a lifetime and was unstintingly encouraging to the work of many, including myself, who were not otherwise being taken on board by more prestigious institutions. I know this was a long time ago but, having encountered Roger at a time when he wasn't under the kind of pressures that a Radio 3 Controller must suffer, I'm inclined to place the principal blame on those pressures for the compromises and general downhill slide undergone by R3 in recent years. It might be said that nobody forced him to take the job and there I would have to agree, and I'd like to think that if I were in his position I would have resigned on principled grounds by now, but my prediction is that he'll be an infinitely better and more imaginative director of the Proms than Kenyon has been (which wouldn't be difficult). Let's see how it works out.