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Postcards from the BBC Proms Friday 12 September 2003 A busy day, and laptop computer problems today, so truly postcards from the Proms. 0755: as if on cue, the day started with another BBC Proms mention or two. The weather presented told us there’s be "good weather for promming tomorrow,” and at 0800, the BBC Breakfast TV went live to Hyde Park where a reporter was setting up the festivities, underscored by live playing by Yo-Yo Ma. There was even speculation in the papers on what sort of gowns soprano Angela Gheorghiu will be wearing for the Last Night. The Proms are truly a part of the cultural and media zeitgeist.
1500: a live line and sound check, to make sure the digital connections are working, and sounding good for tomorrow’s broadcast. The BBC Technical crew ("OB crew” for "Outside Broadcasts”) is ingenious, cooperative, and charming. First rate. Especially impressive when one considers tom’w festivities go out on BBC 1 and 2 TV, Radio 3, The World Service, Digital TV, and various outlets in Europe. Not to mention to the US from MPR of course. Did a live chat with John Birge, and all seemed well.
1600: took a walk around the Royal Albert Hall (RAH), the impressive, vast home of the Proms.
1620: I re-emerge from the RAH into the gorgeous late summer afternoon, amazed by the phalanx of technicians, trucks and twists of cable it will take to broadcast this event worldwide.
1630: chatted with the Prommers waiting in the two queues for tonight’s concert (Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts Beethoven’s 9th.) As I suspected, an interesting group.
September 11 -
Morning
A cool, humid morning began with a couple of sober reports from a still sleeping America on the BBC Breakfast News on this second anniversary of the September 11th attacks. As if to underscore that day, the Underground station was eerily quiet, almost vacant, just before 7am. Quiet enough to focus on last night’s Proms experience, my first time at one of these concerts after all of the flavor we’ve been bringing you on the radio. Everything I’ve heard, and we’ve been saying about the Prommers is true. The Prommers, of course, are this devoted group who stand in the center "arena” of the Royal Albert Hall. The conventional wisdom is: they take the Proms very seriously, both the music, of course, and the "fun bits.” What do I mean by "fun bits?” As we’ve been saying, The Proms concerts are full of traditions, not just the famous "Last Night,” but even on a regular night like last night (Prom 69). First off, the waiting – or queuing up – began early in the damp Wednesday afternoon; 4:45pm for a 7:00 concert. There had been a soaking downpour not a half an hour or so before, and the skies hardly looked cooperative. No matter: there was a spirit of bonhomie in the clumps of Prommers in the Arena ticket queue. That bonhomie was helped along no doubt by the couple of bottles of Cabernet spotted by observers. Then there’s this curious tradition of what I can only characterize as audio telegrams from the Arena (or the Prommers in the highest ring known as the Gallery; clearly inoculated against nosebleeds.) These are pulled off with amazingly dead-on delivery and diction perhaps rehearsed over the aforementioned Cabernet. Last night’s reminded us there would be a collection for musical charities, which so far has raised over 35 thousand pounds in loose change. There were other memorable moments, too. A stagehand got applauded as lustily as a performer when he comes out to make an adjustment on the piano bench. Or when the piano itself is moved out, and the lid is lifted, the Prommers, like clockwork, intone a hearty: "Heave Ho!” All right, not the most uproarious gag, but it all adds to the sense of community and festivity that is the Proms. But as boisterous as the Prommers can be, they are at least as serious about their music. Last night the BBC Philharmonic (that’s right, the BBC has both a Symphony and a Philharmonic—I’m not making this up) offered a meaty program. It was highlighted in a box in Time Out magazine as a "Pick of the Week." Some blazing Prokofiev was on the bill. He’s being commemorated this year, the 50th anniversary of his death. We also heard a pair of big fourths, Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto and Mahler’s 4th Symphony. From the Prommers in the Arena: rapt attention, and appreciative noisy applause. It was amazing to see, considering that they were standing outside in the rain before the concert, and all through such a substantial program. All in all, a nice introduction to the art of Promming; an art that successfully combines festivity, tradition, community, and a true appreciation of the music. Have you ever been in a Royal Retiring Room? That’s
the area to which the members of the Royal Family retire during the
interval, and one assumes, after they vacate their Royal Box at the
end of the concert, too. I was shown the Royal Box yesterday by a member
of the amazing, crack BBC technical squadron. ("It’s the one with the
crown over it.”) HRH and Prince Philip were even in attendance earlier
this year for a "Jubilee Prom.” Well, in that Royal Retiring Room, I
met up with BBC Symphony principal conductor Leonard Slatkin, conductor
for the Last Night, and one of his soloists, Leila Josefowicz. He was
warning her to expect a welcome like she’s never received on stage before.
We’ll hear it all for ourselves Saturday afternoon, live, at
1 pm CTon the Classical
Music Stations of Minnesota Public Radio
September 10
London or New York? Sure, it’s true we have our own array of impressive offerings in the Cities. But I used to have this periodic argument with some of my colleagues when I worked in Ireland: which is the real classical music capital, London or New York? I can’t help it. I’m from New Jersey, and most of my early concert experiences were a PATH ride away in Manhattan. So New York. Has to be New York. Carnegie Hall ("practice, practice, practice…”), Avery Fisher Hall. The New York Philharmonic. Orpheus and St. Luke’s. The Brooklyn Philharmonic. Well, London has orchestras too, the answer comes back. Orchestras and plenty of ‘em. The London Symphony Orchestra, The London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, City of London Sinfonia, The BBC Symphony. Ah, but don’t forget about the Metropolitan Opera. The MET! And The City Opera. London responds with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. (royal, well la-ti-dah. My Yank blood pressure begins to rise at this point.) Well there’s Alice Tully Hall. Ha. What about Wigmore? The Juilliard School. A few Royal Colleges and Academies are flung back. And the Academy of St. Martin–in-the-bloody-Fields, while we’re at it. But that’s not even the trump card. Out it flings – the Queen Mother, The Ace of Spades… the BBC Proms. What? You mean that summer popsy, flag-waving spectacle, I sneered. Well, that’s just one night, the last. The Proms is the BBC Festival at the Royal Albert Hall that packs ‘em in by the thousands all summer for 73 concerts in 58 days. If you’ve been listening to MPR this summer alone, you’ll have heard the Academy of Ancient Music (those Academies again) with the English Concert. The Rotterdam Philharmonic. The Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle. The Vienna Philharmonic and Bobby McFerrin (who got thousands at the Alert Hall to sing the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, and sing it well). There was the young, exciting Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a revelation. And the Pittsburgh Symphony, with Mariss Jansons and Gil Shaham. New York may be the big Apple for plenty of good reasons, but only London has this unique festival. The seeming incompatibility of glittery international first tier artists, and 4-pound standing room seats, our 21st century equivalent of the groundlings in Shakespeare’s Globe. All in the summer, in that big round bowl Victoria built as a memorial for her beloved Albert. Tonight it’s Mahler’s 4th in that big barn. After listening to and talking about those BBC performance tapes this past summer, I can’t wait to see what it’s like to be a Prommer. Check back tomorrow if you’re so inclined, and I’ll give you an update. So, New York or London? Maybe, just maybe, it is
London. Well, shut my New Jersey-grown Yankee mouth!
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