Proms
Listed: Unmissable BBC PromsSunday, 27 April 2014
The first bit of the annual Proms ritual is now out of the way, with the publication of the brochure. The next step is at 9am on Saturday 17 May when thousands of people prepare to do simultaneous battle with the Royal Albert Hall's online booking... Read more... |
Wild things: Conductors at the 2013 PromsMonday, 09 September 2013
"What I’m looking for is that fraction of a second that at least I could remember the concert by." At the start of the 2013 BBC Proms season, photographer Chris Christodoulou let theartsdesk into the secret of snapping conductors at work. Now that... Read more... |
The Last Night of the Proms, Kennedy, DiDonato, BBCSO, AlsopSunday, 08 September 2013
As it came to pass, Marin Alsop’s nationality was rather more of a factor than her gender on this historic Last Night of the Proms – but her deft put-down of remarks made only the week before (pace Petrenko) suggested that it might take a little... Read more... |
Wagner at the Proms rememberedSunday, 08 September 2013
This summer, the Royal Albert Hall became the centre of the Wagnerian universe. No one was going to ignore Bayreuth, where Frank Castorf‘s new Ring gave plenty of fuel for column inches; but somehow the singers and the orchestra seem to have got... Read more... |
Prom 74: Sonnleitner, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, MaazelSaturday, 07 September 2013
Tradition used to decree that the last Friday Prom would be devoted to worshipping Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Not so today. Anything deemed serious and big occupies the slot, and if Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony isn’t serious and big, what do you... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mezzo-Soprano Joyce DiDonatoSaturday, 07 September 2013
She’s the Kansas mezzo-soprano whose ruby slippers have now taken her across the globe, singing in all the great opera houses, but who has never lost the common touch. She’s not a diva, she’s a “Yankee Diva” – a contemporary creature who would never... Read more... |
Prom 73: Imogen Cooper, Paul LewisFriday, 06 September 2013
It’s not because I lament the annual end of a love-hate relationship with the Albert Hall that the last few days of Proms feel rather melancholy. A bittersweetness lies rather in the drawing-in of evenings, however hot it is, so late night Schubert... Read more... |
10 Questions for Conductor Marin AlsopFriday, 06 September 2013
Marin Alsop may be one of America’s leading conductors, with stints as music director of the Colorado, Eugene and Richmond symphony orchestras, not to mention positions at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City... Read more... |
Prom 70: BBC Singers, Temple Church Choir, HillWednesday, 04 September 2013
Purity and holiness filled the air. Boy choristers in red cassocks filed onto the platform. The BBC announcer, paraded soon after, promised “choral music to carry us into the after life”. Had I come to the right place? Was I attending my own funeral... Read more... |
Prom 69: Hadland, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, PetrenkoWednesday, 04 September 2013
May I be permitted a rude, opinionated intermezzo between reflections on Vasily Petrenko’s two Oslo Philharmonic Proms, and before Marin Alsop steps up to great expectations for the Last Night? Here’s another Russian in trouble, not for keeping mum... Read more... |
Prom 68: Skride, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, PetrenkoTuesday, 03 September 2013
The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra made quite a splash with their Tchaikovsky symphony series under Mariss Jansons back in the 1980s. The watchwords then were freshness and articulation, a re-establishment of Tchaikovsky’s innate classicism - and so it... Read more... |
Proms Chamber Music 8: Bostridge, Kenny, FretworkTuesday, 03 September 2013
And so it comes to an end. The final Proms Chamber Music concert of the season didn’t offer quite as grand a send-off as the Last Night of the Proms promises to, but arguably that’s no bad thing. These lunchtime events might be slight in size but... Read more... |
