Proms
BBC Proms: BBCSO, BBCSC, BBC Singers, WigglesworthSunday, 14 August 2011
To lose one performer (to misquote Oscar Wilde) may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose three begins to look like carelessness. With last night’s Prom killing off soloists faster than you can say Sinfonia da Requiem there are few who wouldn’t have... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Tim Minchin, Kit and the Widow, Beardyman, BBC Concert OrchestraSaturday, 13 August 2011
It has been, we can safely agree, a truly terrible week. Art, culture, call it what you will, is unequal to the task of diagnosing a nation’s ills, let alone curing them. But on a night such as the inaugural Comedy Prom, it comes equipped with... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Lazić, Lloyd Webber, BBC Philharmonic, SinaiskyFriday, 12 August 2011
Several Prommers fainted, possibly out of boredom, in a longer than ever first movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto. The boredom, palpable around me, came not from pianist Dejan Lazić transcribing the fiddle part for his own pleasure - a... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Ott, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, OramoTuesday, 09 August 2011
What a difference a change of scene makes. During Sakari Oramo’s 10 years at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra he wasn’t exactly diffident; but you felt you could invite him to tea without any crockery getting broken. Now, I’m... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Tetzlaff, BBCSO, GardnerMonday, 08 August 2011
This year’s Choral Sundays at the Proms are a wonderfully mixed bag. Mighty choral touchstones are represented by Mendelssohn’s Elijah, both the Verdi and Mozart Requiems and Beethoven Missa solemnis, but there’s also an enticing strand of... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Comedian Tim MinchinSunday, 07 August 2011
Tim Minchin, the Australian minstrel comedian, is known by his catweazel hair, thickly kohled eyes and dazzlingly witty songs bashed out at a grand piano about, among other things, the debatable existence of the Almighty. Lately his repertoire of... Read more... |
BBC Proms: National Youth Orchestra, Jurowski/ Nigel KennedySunday, 07 August 2011
Youth was everywhere to be seen at the Proms last night. Whether in the massed ranks of Britain’s National Youth Orchestra, soloist Ben Grosvenor (even younger than the precocious Benjamin Britten when he debuted his own Piano Concerto in 1938),... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, DudamelSaturday, 06 August 2011
Marley & Me: that’s the film about living with a neurotic dog, out now on DVD. And Mahler & Me? It could be the Gustavo Dudamel story. Conducting Mahler was what first brought everyone’s favourite Venezuelan to world attention, when he won... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Martinpelto, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Runnicles/ Tallis ScholarsFriday, 05 August 2011
Leonard Tanner, my old choirmaster, used to say that Brahms was a composer with his feet in three different camps: the Baroque period, the Classical period, and the Romantic. Possibly he had a fourth leg too, poking into the music of the future.... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Les Talens Lyriques/ BBC Philharmonic, NosedaMonday, 01 August 2011
According to Classic FM’s managing director Darren Henley there are many people who find the term “chamber music” offputting, if not downright intimidating. Perhaps the best explanation of the genre comes from a musicologist who has termed it “the... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Midori, CBSO, NelsonsSunday, 31 July 2011
Jealousy of people who live in Birmingham is not (I venture to hazard) so widespread a phenomenon as to merit a name all its own. After last night’s Prom from the CBSO and music director Andris Nelsons however, a term may well have to be coined for... Read more... |
BBC Proms Gallery: Horrible HistoriesSaturday, 30 July 2011
After two Proms devoted to Doctor Who, this year's children's Prom ceded the floor today to the hugely popular CBBC television series Horrible Histories. The series is based, in case you don't know your Horrible Histories history, on the books... Read more... |
