Tag: Royal Albert Hall

Scottish Orchestra Does Russian (& Georgian) Composers At The Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 3 August 1997

This was our one visit to the Proms that season away from the clutches of The Duchess. I had fallen into the habit of treating her to one ort wo Proms each season, by that time. Janie and I occasionally also went to something of our own choosing.

On this occasion, I think the programme looked unusual and yet approachable. Alexander Lazarev conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I wanted to hear Francesca da Rimini performed live and Janie had acquired a taste for countertenor singing. Plus some unusual pieces.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

We heard:

  • Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka – Capriccio brillante (on the Jota Aragonesa)
  • Sergey Prokofiev – Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor
  • Giya Kancheli – Symphony No. 3
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Francesca da Rimini
  • Alexander Glazunov – Raymonda, Op 57 No. 26 Grand pas espagnol Act 2- encore
  • Trad. – Eightsome (reel) – encore

What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing. Nothing went wrong. Although in truth, I don’t recall much about the lesser-known pieces and I cannot for the life of me work out where the countertenor fits in with this collection of pieces. Janie cemented her view that she didn’t like Prokofiev and that big symphony orchestra concerts were not really her favourite thing. Still, we both very much enjoyed our evening.

Here’s what the Glinka sounds like:

Here’s a good recording of the Prokofiev.

The Kancheli is strange yet certainly haunting:

I really enjoyed the Francesca da Rimini. Here is a more recent version of it from The Royal Festival Hall, but you’ll get the idea:

Dig this little bit of the Glazunov:

Fine composer, was Trad. Should have paired up with Anon – they could have been the Lennon and McCartney of the 11th to 19th centuries. Yet Janie insisted that the final encore was Trad’s “Tiresome Reel” rather than Eightsome Reel. I kinda see her point:

Geoffrey Norris in The Telegraph wrote very fondly of this Prom:

Lazarev Prom Norris TelegraphLazarev Prom Norris Telegraph 04 Aug 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Robert Cowan in the Independent also waxed lyrical about this Prom:

Lazarev Prom Cowan IndyLazarev Prom Cowan Indy 05 Aug 1997, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rick Jones was less impressed in The Standard. I’m not quite sure what he means by an errrant electronic high-pitched note. Janie would argue that Prokofiev is meant to sound like that.

Lazarev Prom Jones StandardLazarev Prom Jones Standard 04 Aug 1997, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Just This One Visit To The Concert Hall That Year: Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 7 September 1996

I’m not sure why we went so very little in 1996 – I’m guessing we might have been preoccupied with other things when the Proms programme came out.

I don’t think this concert would have been our first choice, but Pauline liked Debussy and was convinced that Janie simply needed to work at it to find a place in her heart for Prokofiev. We tried a few times over the years and it didn’t ever work.

Valery Gergiev, conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, would certainly have been a draw.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

We heard:

  • Sergey Prokofiev – Symphony No 6 in E flat minor
  • Modest Mussorgsky – The Nursery (arr. Edison Denisov)
  • Claude Debussy – La Mer

Here’s what Nicholas Williams thought about it in the Indy:

Gergiev Proms Williams Indy 1 of 2Gergiev Proms Williams Indy 1 of 2 11 Sep 1996, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Gergiev Prom Williams Indy 2 of 2Gergiev Prom Williams Indy 2 of 2 11 Sep 1996, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Night That Günter Wand Changed The Programme & Conducted His Last Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 9 September 1995

The BBC Proms stub for this concert – click here – reminds me that we had booked to see  Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. But instead we got:

Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1890 version, ed. Nowak)

My log note describes “Brucknergate” as follws:

It was meant to be a different programme, but Gunter changed it.

Well, I suppose Günter was a Bruckner specialist and I quite often booked to see him conduct Bruckner’s works anyway.

Mercifully, The Duchess (Janie’s mum, Pauline) seemed to accept the change with grace at that time. She possibly felt that the change meant that she had dodged a bullet in the matter of procuring interval drinks, as there was no interval given that it was a one piece concert. Pauline’s idea of a fair deal was for me or Janie to buy the tickets, the other of me or Janie to buy the dinner and she would buy the interval drinks…

…unless we were at The Questors Theatre, where she was a member, in which case she would do the theatre tickets, while Janie and I would procure the drinks and meal. (The Duchess received a few free guest tickets each year as part of her membership package, we later discovered.)

But I digress.

Strangely, I have found a recording of this very concert on YouTube, which I can share with you right here:

According to the accompanying verbiage, this concert turned out to be Günter Wand’s last stand…in the matter of conducting BBC Proms.

Rick Jones waxed lyrical about this concert in his trio of Standard Proms reviews:

Wand Prom Jones StandardWand Prom Jones Standard 11 Sep 1995, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Martin Kettle in The Guardian compared this Wand performance of Bruckner 8 with previous ones a little unfavourably while still praising the performance. A case of “the Kettle calling the Wand slack” or something like that:

Wand Prom Kettle GuardianWand Prom Kettle Guardian 12 Sep 1995, Tue The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

In the end, I suppose I should be glad to have been there for this one. I had been following Günter Wand around the Proms for best part of a decade by then.

A Visit To The Proms By Some Big Norwegians, Royal Albert Hall, 12 August 1995

Of course Pauline (The Duchess of Castlebar & Janie’s mum) knew all about the big Norwegians. She’d have done all of that before, but, as we were suggesting it, yes, she would join us at this Prom.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

Latvian maestro Mariss Jansons conducting The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in the following programme:

  • Magnar Åm – Study on a Norwegian Hymn
  • Richard Strauss – Also Sprach Zarathustra
  • Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 2 in D major

Were we excited? Were we excited!

I loved a bit of Also Sprach back then. Here is a video of Mariss conducting the Concertgebouworkest in that very piece:

Even more, I loved that Sibelius Symphony No 2. Still do. Here is Mariss conducting the Big Norwegians from Oslo in the first movement of that amazing symphony:

Bliss.

Adrian Jack in the Independent also thought the Sibelius was bliss.

Jansons Prom Jack IndyJansons Prom Jack Indy 14 Aug 1995, Mon The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Even The Duchess seemed moved, but perhaps that was an auditory illusion.

Young Australians Playing Instruments Not Cricket, Royal Albert Hall, 23 July 1994

It wasn’t even an Ashes summer, in truth.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

This will have been the very first time that Janie and I pandered to her mum’s (Pauline “The Duchess of Castlebar”) taste for seeing youth orchestras.

Yakov Kreizberg conducting the Australian Youth Orchestra.

We heard:

  • Brenton Broadstock – Festive Overture
  • Jean Sibelius – Violin Concerto
  • Béla Bartók – The Miraculous Mandarin – suite
  • Maurice Ravel – Pavane pour une infante défunte (Orchestral version)
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Capriccio espagnol, Op 34

Cho-liang Lin was a superb soloist on the violin for the Sibelius, which was worth the price of admission alone.

Here’s the kid playing the first movement with The Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen:

Stephen Johnson in the Independent was full of praise:

Kreizburg Prom Johnson IndyKreizburg Prom Johnson Indy 25 Jul 1994, Mon The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

A Bit Of Schumann & Brahms, Royal Albert Hall, 4 September 1993

Janie’s first encounter with Günter, was this. Possibly Pauline’s too, although she “will have done all that” with Janie’s father decades earlier, no doubt.

Günter Wand had a close working relationship with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Proms for a long time.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

We heard:

  • Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 4 in D minor
  • Johannes Brahms – Symphony No 1 in C minor

It was good.

Robert Henderson in the Telegraph also thought it was good:

Wand Prom Henderson TelegraphWand Prom Henderson Telegraph 08 Sep 1993, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

So that proves it.

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

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle At The Proms, But Who, If Anyone, Accompanied Me?, Royal Albert Hall, 19 July 1992

One of the great mysteries of my diaries and logs. Normally I would leave a clue as to who accompanied me. This time, there are no clues. Did I book this one as a single ticket – so keen to see Simon Rattle and the CBSO I decided to go it alone? My electronic financial records don’t go back far enough for me to be able to tell.

OK, let’s round up the usual suspects. Jilly. Annalisa. Bobbie. (Were it anyone other than one of those three, I’m sure there would be clues in my diary/logs).

I had written the following NewsRevue piece, destined to be a hit, the day before this concert and would have been full of it that evening, if accompanied:

Come Back Labour, NewsRevue Lyric, 18 July 1992

But I digress.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for the Prom concert.

I/we heard:

  • Roberto Gerhard – Don Quixote (complete ballet: 2nd version)
  • Leos Janáček – Glagolitic Mass

Here is a more recent Simon Rattle with the Berlin (rather than Birmingham) lot, doing a short extract from the Gerhard…

…and a short extract from the Glagolithic Mass:

If you want to see what Simon Rattle looked like in Birmingham in the 1990s, the following is his farewell gig there from 1998, with the CBSO & CBSO Chorus:

Edward Greenfield in the Guardian loved this concert:

Rattle Prom Greenfield GuardianRattle Prom Greenfield Guardian 22 Jul 1992, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

OK Jilly/Annalisa/Bobbie. A confession would be much appreciated if one of you remembers being there.

Going It Alone At The Proms With Anton & Günter, Royal Albert Hall, 9 September 1990

Annalisa was due to join me at this concert, but had to pull out at the last minute for some reason. The reason is not captured in my log. It was a Sunday, so I expect it was a health reason rather than a work reason.

Anyway, I hobbled to the Albert Hall alone for this Prom. I think it was the first time I had been to the Proms alone and possibly was the only time I have done so to date (the date of writing this being late 2024).

I say hobbled, because the cursory “traction” approach to my multiple prolapse was obviously not working and I was still in a great deal of pain with my back after my injury in June that year. Indeed, I associate my evening alone at the Proms with Anton & Günter as the point at which I resolved that I would have to try something else, but that I was determined to try something other than major surgery before possibly submitting to that as a last resort.

This was a one piece concert:

Anton Bruckner – Symphony No 5 in B Flat Major, performed by the maestro Günter Wand conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

I suspect that Bruckner 5 is a good number for contemplative thought – it is certainly long enough. I do remember finding this performance especially moving and being really taken with it.

It was filmed and the film has been released on DVD – here is an extract:

If you look very carefully you might spot me sitting in the stalls on my tod.

This review from the Bucks Examiner says a lot:

Wand Ashmore BucksWand Ashmore Bucks 21 Sep 1990, Fri Bucks Examiner (Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England) Newspapers.com

Robert Henderson’s review in The Telegraph was no less glowing:

Wand Prom Henderson TelegraphWand Prom Henderson Telegraph 14 Sep 1990, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I was there, folks. I was there. No doubt uncomfortable, fidgeting and barely able to walk for five minutes afterwards…but I was there.

An Heroic, Massive Cast For A Sunday Evening Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 2 September 1990

This was a big concert with a massive cast. Two big works:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Eroica’
  • Leos Janáček – Glagolitic Mass

One heck of a lot of musicians: The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir & BBC Symphony Chorus, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra & the (now) late, great Czech conductor Libor Pešek. Not to forget soloists John Mitchinson, Michael George, Jane Eaglen, Ameral Gunson and Ian Tracey.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this concert.

Jilly accompanied me on this occasion, according to my log, which is usually pretty reliable, as long as I wrote the details down at or near the time, which on this occasion I guess I did.

However, I returned to the scene of the crime, for a different rendition of the Glagolitic Mass, a couple of years later and did not log the name of my companion, which has resulted in one of the greatest mysteries in the entire history of Ogblog postings about 1992 classical concerts – click here or below.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle At The Proms, But Who, If Anyone, Accompanied Me?, Royal Albert Hall, 19 July 1992

The prime suspect for the 1992 evening is now Bobbie, who has gone very quite on that topic.

Jilly wrote to say:

With regards to the concert in 1992, I must admit that my memory does somewhat fail me. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday, let alone 30 years ago, but all I can say is that I don’t remember ever seeing the Glagolitic Mass performed, and I’m not sure that I’ve actually ever seen Simon Rattle conducting in person, but if it’s helpful for you to put me down as having been at the concert with you I won’t object!

Well, Jilly, what do you have to say now that the log has fingered you for a different performance of the Glagolitic Mass? I’m expecting a confession. No need for an apology.

To be fair, Jilly also says:

Thank you for attaching the review at the bottom; how that choir managed to sing a Slavonic piece without the score just baffles me. Reading and pronouncing the transliterated version of Rachmaninov Vespers utterly did my head in, and that was with a good number of rehearsals.

Well all I can say to that is:

Glagolitic script: Лобачев Владимир, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Joking apart, I remember this 1990 Prom as being a big one in every way, including the audience response at the end of a long Sunday evening concert.

I think Jan Smaczny in The Independent liked it:

Pedek Prom Smaczny IndyPedek Prom Smaczny Indy 04 Sep 1990, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Tom Sutcliffe in the Guardian absolutely did.

Pesek prom Sutcliffe GuardianPesek prom Sutcliffe Guardian 04 Sep 1990, Tue The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Does this bring any of it back to your memory, Jilly?