The 2012 Proms season

[bluestateprommer]

Just for amusement, took a look at the RAH's website regarding sales so far for the 2012 Proms. 28 (!) concerts are listed as sold out. So as of this writing, these Proms are ausverkauft/uitverkocht:

Prom 1: The First Night
Prom 2: My Fair Lady
PCM 1: Alice Coote & Julius Drake
Prom 6: BBC SO/JB/Kirill Gerstein
Prom 9: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 1
PSM 1: JSB, The Art of the Fugue
Prom 10: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 2
Prom 12: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 3
Prom 13: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 4
Prom 18: Beethoven 9, WEDO/Barenboim
Prom 20: Wallace & Gromit
Prom 23: RVW/Delius/Walton, BBC NOW/Otaka
Prom 26: JSB, Mass in b
PCM 4: Debussy/Ravel
Prom 39: Berlioz, Requiem, BBC NOW/Fischer
PCM 5: Nicola Benedetti & friends
Prom 43: RPO/Dutoit/Grosvenor
Prom 45: Sao Paulo SO/Alsop
Prom 59: The Broadway Sound
Prom 60: The Marriage of Figaro
Prom 63: BPO/Rattle 1
Prom 64: BPO/Rattle 2
PCM 8: Debussy, Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Prom 70: Desert Island Discs 70th Anniversary
Prom 71: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra/Robertson/Tetzlaff
Prom 73: VPO/Haitink 1
Prom 75: VPO/Haitink 2
Prom 76: The Last Night

Feel free to find patterns - if any .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Proms 45 & 71? These do surprise me. I recall a prom some 12 years ago with Ashkenazy and the Czech PO, playing to a RAH with 1/3 of the seats unoccupied.

[Resurrection Man]

Proms 45 & 71? These do surprise me. I recall a prom some 12 years ago with Ashkenazy and the Czech PO, playing to a RAH with 1/3 of the seats unoccupied.

Maybe they all think that Dudamel is the conductor of Sao Paulo ?

[Petrushka]

Proms 45 & 71? These do surprise me. I recall a prom some 12 years ago with Ashkenazy and the Czech PO, playing to a RAH with 1/3 of the seats unoccupied.

I scratched both 45 & 71 from my list before they went on it. Proms audiences can move in mysterious ways sometimes and most seasons throw up such oddities. What claim to musical fame justifies a visit of the SP SO to the 'world's greatest classical music festival'?

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Maybe they all think that Dudamel is the conductor of Sao Paulo ?

Well, London has a sizeable populations of Brazilians. Should be an interesting audience...

[PaulT]

I would think the substantial attraction in Prom 45 is Marin Alsop. Certainly a conductor who has delivered in her Prom and other concerts I have attended.

[bluestateprommer]

Not that anyone cares, but I might just turn the check on sold-out concerts into a weekly event before The Proms start mid-July. Looking at the RAH's site now, here's the updated list of sold-out concerts, as of this very moment, which you can (or not) compare to last week's list for shifts:

Prom 1: The First Night
Prom 2: My Fair Lady
PCM 1: Alice Coote & Julius Drake
Prom 6: BBC SO/JB/Kirill Gerstein
PSM 1: JSB, The Art of the Fugue
Prom 10: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 2
PCM 2: Tenebrae
Prom 12: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 3
Prom 18: Beethoven 9, WEDO/Barenboim
Prom 20: Wallace & Gromit
Prom 23: RVW/Delius/Walton, BBC NOW/Otaka
Prom 26: JSB, Mass in b
PCM 4: Debussy/Ravel
Prom 39: Berlioz, Requiem, BBC NOW/Fischer
PCM 5: Nicola Benedetti & friends
Prom 43: RPO/Dutoit/Grosvenor
Prom 59: The Broadway Sound
Prom 60: The Marriage of Figaro
Prom 63: BPO/Rattle 1
PCM 8: Debussy, Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Prom 71: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra/Robertson/Tetzlaff
Prom 73: VPO/Haitink 1
Prom 76: The Last Night

So we're now at 23 sold-out concerts vs. 28 last week, with just one new addition to the sold-out list vs. 6 drop-offs, for a net change of -5 in sold-out Proms. In fairness, if 1 seat is turned back and the ticket has not yet been re-sold, then the concert is not truly "sold-out".

Actually, for Proms 45 and 71, those both qualify as "classical for starters", even though The Proms staff only marketed Prom 45 of the two as such. Remember that Dvorak 9, Beethoven and Gershwin always sell tickets. The comments here about those Proms vs. general sales seem to speak of a disconnect between two different audiences, the aficionados (here) and relative newbies (out there). Likewise, the one comment about the RVW Prom with the BBC SSO and Andrew Manze expressed concern about it selling out, but from a check of the RAH site, no such situation, as there are a goodly number of seats still available in the Circle. To give another example, for the John Cage Prom the next day, tons of seats in the Circle and Choir are still available, for example.

[french frank]

Not that anyone cares

Au contraire, your PromWatch is fascinating. The sell-outs are a strange combination of concerts I would love to go to and those I couldn't be dragged to, not for love, money or cucumber sandwiches.

[bluestateprommer]

The latest "PromWatch", to appropriate ff's term, of sold out concerts to date, admittedly a bit late (and perhaps a dollar short) from the original plan:

Prom 1: The First Night
Prom 2: My Fair Lady
PCM 1: Alice Coote & Julius Drake
Prom 6: BBC SO/JB/Kirill Gerstein
Prom 9: Beethoven/Boulez/WEDO 1
PSM 1: JSB, The Art of the Fugue
PCM 2: Tenebrae
Prom 18: Beethoven 9, WEDO/Barenboim
Prom 20: Wallace & Gromit
Prom 23: RVW/Delius/Walton, BBC NOW/Otaka
Prom 26: JSB, Mass in b
PCM 4: Debussy/Ravel
Prom 39: Berlioz, Requiem, BBC NOW/Fischer
PCM 5: Nicola Benedetti & friends
Prom 43: RPO/Dutoit/Grosvenor
Prom 45: Sao Paulo SO/Alsop
Prom 59: The Broadway Sound
Prom 60: The Marriage of Figaro
Prom 63: BPO/Rattle 1
Prom 64: BPO/Rattle 2
PCM 8: Debussy, Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Prom 70: Desert Island Discs 70th Anniversary
Prom 71: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra/Robertson/Tetzlaff
Prom 73: VPO/Haitink 1
Prom 75: VPO/Haitink 2
Prom 76: The Last Night

So we're now at 26 sold-out Proms as of this posting, up 3 from last week's reading, down 2 from 2 weeks back or so. It's also interesting to see the ones that have held steady, vs. the ones that fluctuate in and out.

[bluestateprommer]

There will certainly be some toothsome morning broadcasts from the EIF - so I am given to understand.

This is indeed the case, and I've put all the EIF 11 AM concerts which Radio 3 will broadcast during the Edinburgh Festival into the Forum calendar as well.

For today, here's the latest "PromWatch" on sold-out Proms as of this moment:

Prom 2: My Fair Lady
PCM 1: Alice Coote & Julius Drake
PSM 1: JSB, The Art of the Fugue
PCM 2: Tenebrae
Prom 18: Beethoven 9, WEDO/Barenboim
PSM 2: Les 24 Violons du Roy
PCM 4: Debussy/Ravel
PCM 5: Nicola Benedetti & friends
Prom 59: The Broadway Sound
Prom 60: The Marriage of Figaro
PCM 8: Debussy, Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Prom 73: VPO/Haitink 1
Prom 76: The Last Night

So we're actually down to 13 sold-out Proms now, compared to 26 at the last posting, a drop of 50%. I'm assuming, however, that tickets were turned back for re-sale, rather than people were getting refunds. We'll see how it looks again on the eve of the First Night.