The first of two visits to the Proms with The Duchess that season.
We heard:
- Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 in F minor
- Elgar – Symphony No. 1 in A flat major
- Dvořák – Slavonic Dances, Op 46 No. 1 in C major (encore)
Here is a link to the BBC stub for this concert.
The Duchess was always partial to a youth orchestra, so Sir Colin Davis conducting the European lot was bound to be a good choice for her.
I have always been partial to Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony and don’t mind admitting it. It’s the classical/romantic music equivalent of admitting to liking Mr Blue Sky by ELO. Almost everyone likes it really but only some of us are brave enough to admit to that guilty pleasure.
Here is a video of an antipodean youth orchestra belting out the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 4th.
Janie tends to find Elgar a bit heavy-handed and frankly I find it hard to disagree with that, although he doesn’t displease me as much as he seems to displease Janie.
Here’s the BBC Symphony Orchestra doing the Elgar a few years later at The Proms: