Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo 2009 BBC Proms

Friday evening in London is the First Night of the 115th year of the BBC Proms, the world's greatest classical music festival. There's a daily schedule of concerts for the next 8 weeks, with the performances broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and available on demand for the following 7 days on the Radio 3 iPlayer site , as are most of their music programs. Thursday evening a Proms Preview was broadcast on their Performance on 3 program, available for 7 days.

As I have in past years, I'll probably occasionally post a comment on one of the interesting concerts.

Sounds PROMising.

OK, that was pretty lame but thanks!

Muuuhuuu haaa hahaha YOU CAN"T STOP ME FROM EDITING MARK!!!!! But i'm still leaving it there.

Murph, it really was. You should edit while you can!

Oh wait. Now you can't since I quoted you!

Oh Ya? Look up....

Foiled AGAIN!

Just finished enjoying a replay on the BBC iPlayer site of Proms 9 , the concert which took place Thursday evening in London. The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Vassily Sinaisky performed a program of British music, with the surprisingly little-known(you almost certainly have never heard it)Symphony of E.J. Moeran being featured on Part I. I found it accidentally on a radio program a few years ago and immediately got a CD that was available. Unfamiliar music certainly worth a listen(available on demand for seven days).

Then, after the 20 minute intermission, the Elgar 2nd Symphony was played on Part 2. This symphony grew on me the more I listened to it and I now consider it to be one of my favorites and have four CDs featuring it.

Thanks for posting this John listening right now.

Thanks for another great tip JohnK.

I've been looking over my cable channels that carry BBC hoping to come across some video coverage of this but no such luck yet.

I have found most of my classical music by borrowing from the public library.

I was lucky enough to stumble across some Moeran done by Adrian Boult LPO & NPO (Sinfonietta, Sym/G-minor, Overture/Masque) and I have enjoyed it much.

Also Elgar: The Best of Maxim Vengerov[Disc11] has Sonata for Piano/Violin that is breathtaking.

And last but no way least, Jacqueline Du Pre's rendition of Elgar Cello Sonata with Barbirolli. It can bring tears to think of what was lost to MS.

Thanks again for all your excellent recommendations!

(They give great voice to my M22's)

Earlier Saturday evening in London Prom 12 took place, with the concert featuring Sir Charles Mackerras conducting the BBC Philharmonic in a program of British music. Part 1 had some pleasant music by Elgar and Delius and in Part 2 after the intermission that composition which is so thrilling and a necessity for our Axioms, Holst's The Planets, was performed. Sir Charles may not have exceeded my favorite CD versions with Mehta and Dutoit, but a good performance well-worth the listen.

BBC Radio 3's Monday afternoon program included a replay of last Tuesday's Prom 16 and is available on demand until next Monday. After a slow start with a new composition having little in the way of discernible musical values(which is best fast-forwarded through), about 30 minutes in the meat of the concert began with an excellent performance of the Tchaikovsky 2nd Piano Concerto by Stephen Hough with the City of Birmingham Symphony. Following that there was a performance of the complete Stravinsky Firebird.

Just finished listening to a replay of the Prom 31 concert which took place earlier Saturday evening in London. The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, conducted by Vassily Petrenko, appeared and on the first part of the program Stephen Hough was featured in an excellent performance of Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto. Following intermission the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra(only moderately interesting in my view)was played, and the the very colorful Roman Festivals by Respighi concluded the concert with a bang. This finished the traversal of all three Roman Poems by Respighi at the Proms, and the Pines of Rome in Prom 29 and Fountains of Rome in Prom 30 are also worth a listen.

BBC Radio 3's Thursday afternoon program included a replay of last week's Prom 34 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Fast forwarding about 50 minutes into the program gets to the meat of the concert with a beautiful performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto by Julian Rachlin. Concluding the concert were excerpts from Khachaturian's Spartacus and Gayaneh. As usual, available for 7 days.

Earlier Tuesday evening Prom 62 took place in London, featuring the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, voted by Gramophone Magazine recently as being the finest in the world. The second part of the concert, after a few minutes of the intermission feature, had a performance of the Shostakovich 10th Symphony, released shortly after Stalin's death and said to be somewhat of a celebration(Stalin had given him a really hard time), with an ominous opening movement, tumultuous second and triumphant conclusion.

Two encores were performed: the Sibelius Valse Triste and a vigorous excerpt from Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk, which Stalin had banned.

Also worth hearing is the performance of the Shostakovich 11th Symphony, commemorating the 1905 uprising and massacre which took place in St. Petersburg, which was featured on Prom 46 and repeated on yesterday's BBC Afternoon Program . Fast forwarding about an hour into the program gets to the symphony, which has a segment in the second movement that's about the most violent in all of symphonic music.