The 2014 Proms Season - what are your thoughts and feelings?

[Guest]

What are your feelings about the music played in 2014 and the calibre of the performances?

It might be helpful to set aside the broadcaster and the marketing in the evaluations. They're hobby horse topics which tend to yield a very familiar repertoire of creaks and groans.

What did we all make of this year's music and its makers?

[Hornspieler]

What are your feelings about the music played in 2014 and the calibre of the performances?

It might be helpful to set aside the broadcaster and the marketing in the evaluations. They're hobby horse topics which tend to yield a very familiar repertoire of creaks and groans.

What did we all make of this year's music and its makers?

A curate's egg (with a suggestion of botulism) is probably the wisest opinion, in order not to upset anyone else.

HS

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As I said on the Last Night Thread - unimaginative and unfocussed programming across the Season (a set of concerts, rather than a "Season") but with many excellent individual concerts.

[amateur51]

As I said on the Last Night Thread - unimaginative and unfocussed programming across the Season (a set of concerts, rather than a "Season") but with many excellent individual concerts.

[Master Jacques]

It might be helpful to set aside the broadcaster and the marketing in the evaluations.

Hard to do, when the overriding feeling is, that the Marketing has taken pride of place over the Music-making. And when what one might loosely call the "Katie Derham Style" has become inextricably entwined with the Marketing.

I wonder if the Suits know how deeply all this makes onlookers sneer. Did anyone hear the lampoon of R3 on R4's Now Show on Friday? Appallingly unfunny and out of touch, but a fair reflection of what Joe Public thinks is going on with R3, I fear.

[Petrushka]

What was the thinking behind the invitation to orchestras from far-flung corners of the globe to this year's Proms?

I purposely haven't posed this question until the Proms are over and while there is no suggestion that orchestras in question were not competent (at least) I am puzzled as to what it is that an orchestra from, say, Qatar can bring to Rachmaninov that the BBCSO or NOW could not bring with equal (at least) or superior competence.

I think the question of the cost of bringing these musicians over was covered by sponsorship (correct me if I'm wrong) but the BBC must have faced some significant expenditure nevertheless.

The choice of repertoire throughout the season was reasonably wide and the calibre of performance, in the main and the odd disappointment aside, was high enough.

Of those concerts I attended, the very last with Alan Gilbert and the Gewandhaus in Beethoven was the most serious disappointment. Hobbled by Chailly's indisposition this was a performance to forget.

One real stand out concert and a real discovery for me, was a work that was never scheduled in the first place: the Singing by Sally Beamish on August 1 in a thoroughly well planned and excitingly played programme that concluded with a thrilling Walton 1

[teamsaint]

I tend to try to see the Proms with " half full" glasses on.
For all the ways in which i might like to improve the festival, it still provides an extraordinary platform for some excellent and interesting performers. It still provides an opportunity for many people to try new and different (for them) music at a great price, in an exciting atmosphere. There is much great music, and some interesting programmes.

I don't really have an issue, in fact welcome, music from outside the classical mainstream, but it would be such an improvement if the programming if that music had some sort of logic,or embraced exciting new music rather than just providing an opportunity to book popular acts who sell tickets easily.

6.30 starts really need to be, as far as possible, a thing of the past. They stop people attending, and don't seem to provide an opportunity for many extra people to get out of London before the trains stop running.

Customer service in general needs a rethink. Ticket prices are too high on some occasions,as some thinly attended nights show, the Berio/DSCH EUYO was a good example.

One thing I would really like to see would be a commitment (oh dear, not sure the BBC management would like that word) to programme , over a few years if necessary, some of the s great symphony cycles that currently get zero exposure. We can all make up our own lists, but it would do this music such a great service.
One can imagine, for instance the effect that programming a cycle of William Schuman symphonies over 3 years might have in attracting interest to not only his work, but other recent American composers.

Something else I would love to see is some real imagination going into programming works that might make a great Prom, rather than just a great concert. Works like Schnittke #1, Partch's Delusion if the Fury for instance (add your own suggestions!) might make truly memorable, special, unique nights. and that is what the BBC want, isn't it?

Edit: Managed 3 Proms this year, and loved them all. downside was having a work commitment which meant I missed the Mahler 3.Would have loved to be at Pab's Prom too, but a previous musical commitment meant I missed that. I imagine he has something in the pipeline for 2015.....

[Blotto]

Hard to do

Make the effort.

[Blotto]

Are people's perceptions of this season matched by their reality?

I have the impression of a great deal of later romantic music (which doesn't interest me much) interspersed with small and odd selections of unprepossessing music from either side. There seemed to be quite a bit that was trivial. I need to look at the schedules again because I was surprised to see that 8 of Beethoven's symphonies were played. He was lost to me somehow this year.

Is this a Proms season that made its case? Alot of music was played but alot of music is played in London all year. What's its particular purpose in such a lousy venue? When the Hall's half empty, it's a glum cavern, a gigantic funeral parlour with rotten sound.

I did very much enjoy the Shostakovich 4 when I listened to it later at home and the Iceland SO's imports were really enjoyed.

[vinteuil]

Is this a Proms season that made its case? A lot of music was played but alot of music is played in London all year. What's its particular purpose in such a lousy venue? .

... my own thoughts exactly.

Proms I have enjoyed in the past have included the classical Indian all-nighter, and various 20th cent works - such as Ligeti - : all of which made inspirational use of the tricky space that is the Albert Hall. But to drag out year after year the same warhorses and orchestras in such an ungrateful space...

I so dislike all the Proms hypery - and of course Radio 3 finds here such a marvellous self-congratulatory way of showing itself off...

[VodkaDilc]

I would strongly object to the description of the RAH as a 'lousy venue'. I've been going there for well over 45 years, but I still gasp as I walk in. We might moan about acoustic problems, but they are now comparatively minor and the ear soon adjusts in most parts of the hall. Visually and emotionally the place is stunning. It also has an impressive and convenient location - with restaurants, park and so in in easy each. I wonder if anyone remembers the Queen's Hall? How did that comapre? I can't see any present-day location which could replace the RAH.

[Nick Armstrong]

Managed 3 Proms this year, and loved them all

Same here But partly because they are 'events' to attend with certain individuals - musically, they are too often handicapped by the acoustic... and maybe that has something to do with the effect of moronic open-mouthed coughing, which mars music-making more intrusively (for me) there than in any other venue. Is it the 'type of audience' the Proms attracts too? Great concentration from the majority - but it only takes half-a-dozen selfish bronchitics or smokers to wreck anything subtle.

After 3 concerts, the charm of the events wore off, and I'm thirsting for the RFH season to start, and it's the same every year!

[Blotto]

... in such a lousy venue? When the Hall's half empty, it's a glum cavern, a gigantic funeral parlour with rotten sound.

I would strongly object to the description of the RAH as a 'lousy venue'.

I really noticed the sound this year because for the first time in my life, I had a decent seat - near the stage with a good view of the band and better sound.

If, as I've generally been, you're 200 feet from the stage, 50 feet up, looking at a 1000 empty seats and failing to be entertained by a foggy echo of tosh, it's an awful place to be.

I felt sorry for and depressed by the obvious groups of tourists in the circle - in their rows and blocks of 5s, 10s and 20s in the midst of otherwise wholly empty sections - and they looking at something similar, both around them and opposite. It was a sorry sight on a sorry night without any sense of an occasion.

[DracoM]

Well, apart from some of the Strauss, I listened less and certainly far more selectively this year than I can ever remember.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I would strongly object to the description of the RAH as a 'lousy venue'. I've been going there for well over 45 years, but I still gasp as I walk in. We might moan about acoustic problems, but they are now comparatively minor and the ear soon adjusts in most parts of the hall.

It's true that the acoustics were bad before the installation of the flying saucers. Now it's a fine hall in most respects, possibly the best of the capital's larger venues. It's just a matter of being aware of the few parts of the RAH best avoided.