Tag: Anthony Halstead

Bach At The Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 2 August 1993

Our first Prom together. BBC Prom I’m talking about. And when I say, “together”, that wasn’t just me and Janie – oh no – we also had her mother, Pauline, in tow.

In truth Janie wasn’t too keen on the idea of a “classical concert”, whereas Pauline was a keen music listener.

Still, Janie professed to liking Brandenberg Concertos, so this concert, entirely comprising J S Bach works, including three of the Brandenbergs, seemed a suitable entry point. This, despite my reservations about the Royal Albert Hall as a venue for baroque period music.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom. The Hanover Band with some cracking soloists: Anthony Robson, Benjamin Hudson, Catherine Latham, Robert Farley, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Brown, directed by Anthony Halstead.

This is what we heard:

  • Brandenburg Concerto No 2 in F major, BWV 1047
  • Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056
  • Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major
  • Concerto for Two Keyboards in C minor, BWV 1060 (version for oboe & violin)
  • Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major, BWV 1050

Here is a later recording of The Hanover Band doing Brandenberg 5:

Meirion Bowen in the Guardian rated this Prom highly, while concurring with my view about the unsuitability of baroque music scaled authentically in the Albert Hall:

Hanover Prom Bowen GuardianHanover Prom Bowen Guardian 04 Aug 1993, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Music at Oxford Fireworks Concert, Radley College, 20 July 1991

This was one of several Music At Oxford events that my old firm, BDO Consulting (aka Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants) sponsored between 1989 and 1992.

The first of them included an action-packed, cartoon-like journey to Oxford – click here or below.

Music At Oxford At The Sheldonian Theatre & Bodleian Library, 7 July 1989

The 1991 edition was a far more sedate affair – at least it was for me – as the fireworks were part of the show on this occasion.

Annalisa de Mercur accompanied me on this occasion. I think we all stayed at The Moat House, as we had done in 1990 when Caroline Freeman accompanied me.

We heard:

  • George Frideric Handel – Water Music Suite No 2 in D major HWV 349
  • Johann Pachelbel – Canon
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Serenade No 13 in G K525 “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No 1 in F BWV 1046
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Horn Concerto No 4 in E Flat K495 3rd Movement
  • Malcolm Arnold – Sinfonietta No 1 for two oboes, two horns and strings
  • Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings
  • George Frideric Handel – Music for the Royal Fireworks

Ah, in fact I have the running order from the programme:

It was quite a late evening affair, this one, with the second half not even starting until 9:45, so the fireworks must have been at what would now be deemed to be an antisocial hour.

I’m pretty sure we young consultants were discouraged from continuing our antisocial activities on our return to the hotel, so the boisterous singing |I remember from the first event I’m pretty sure simply didn’t happen this time around.

Drinking and chatting in the hotel bar almost certainly did happen, though.

I remember this one as a very pleasant and largely relaxing outing. I’m not sure I had any clients of my own there that night – perhaps one – and the relative popularity of the programme meant that my musical knowledge (such as it is) was little called-upon.

Postscript: Annalisa recalls…

Is this the one with chandeliers in the marquee and a view across the lake? If so, I remember it. Clearly, the chandeliers made more of an impression than either the music or the fireworks! Chandeliers in marquees have become pretty commonplace now, but at the time I had never seen anything like it!

Top recall, Annalisa, top recall.