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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
 

Prom 76 - The Last Night of the Proms: Renée Fleming (soprano), Maxim Rysanov (viola), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jirí Belohlávek, Royal Albert Hall, London, 11.9.2010 (BBr)

 

Jonathan Dove: A Song of Joys (2010) (BBC commission: world première)

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, op.45 (1880)

Rococo Variations, op.33 (1876) (Fitzenhagen version) arranged for viola by Maxim Rysanov

Parry: Blest Pair of Sirens (1887)

Richard Strauss: Verführung, op.33/1 (1896)

Freundliche Vision, op.48/1 (1900 orchestrated 1918)

Ständchen, op.17/2 (1887, orchestrated by Felix Mottl 1912)

Winterweihe, op.48/4 (1900 orchestrated 1918)

Zueignung, op.10/1 (1885, orchestrated by Robert Heger 1932)

Chabrier: Joyeuse marche (1888)

Smetana: Dalibor – 'Dobrá! Já mu je dám!...Jak je mi?' (1865/1867 revised 1870)

Dvorák: Rusalka – Song to the Moon (1900)

Vaughan Williams: Suite for viola and small orchestra – Prelude; Galop (1934)

Wagner: Lohengrin – Bridal Chorus (1845/1888)

Rodgers and Hammerstein: Carousel – 'You'll never walk alone' (1945)

Traditional, orchestrated by Nic Raine: Fisher’s Hornpipe (2010) (BBC commission: world première)

Arne: Rule, Britannia! (1740)

Parry, orchestrated by Elgar: Jerusalem (1916 – 1922)

Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D, op.39./1 (1901)

Britten: The National Anthem (1961)


Have you noticed how, in this age of encroaching - and usually unwarranted or unwanted political correctness - the Last Night of the Proms has changed from being the enjoyable fun evening where, after two months of listening to great music in generally good performances, those of us lucky enough to have a full head of hair can let it down?

Well, not any more, at least to my mind. Mostly we have to dream, and somehow release all the passion and tension we’ve built up during the season, through the disorganised, and badly planned, mish–mash that the Last Night has become. The Last Night used to be, by tradition, an all British affair, and quite rightly so, for the festival is organised by the British Broadcasting Corporation and it’s a British invention, much copied, yet never improved upon nor bettered anywhere in the world. But somehow, modern concert planners seem to think that we don’t want to hear British music that much – and if we can’t have some on the Last Night when the audience will accept what they are given without question then when can we hear our own music? The traditional Last Night was a winning formula and, as the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The last all–British Last Night was as long ago as 1993, when Barry Wordsworth was in charge, and what a show that was! The Perfect Fool ballet music, Malcolm Arnold’s 2^nd Clarinet Concerto, Delius’s 2^nd Dance Rhapsody, four pieces from Lord Berners’s Triumph of Neptune, the Rio Grande, Walton’s Suite from his film music for Richard III, and the usual lighter fare for the second half, along with a couple of welcome guest items.

I mention all this to show just how intelligently planned that concert was. It had focus, it varied lighter pieces with more serious ones, none of it was too intellectually taxing, but best of all, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Since then, more and more foreign music has invaded the Last Night and the focus of the concert, an enjoyable celebration of Britishness has been lost. Last year we were given Dido’s Lament and the Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen – music concerning death and the imminent danger of self harm because your girlfriend’s left you. How festive was that, for goodness sake? Or could it be that unknown to most of us, there’s an EU directive somewhere which forbids the performance of British music on the grounds that any kind of nationalism must be replaced by ever-expanding European federalism? If so, I want out!

As a festive occasion, the 2010 Last Night was a non–starter. There was no party spirit whatsoever in the hall, and friends tell me that this was also felt through the TV coverage. Jonathan Dove’s new setting of Walt Whitman, A Song of Joys, for double choir and orchestra was perfect to start the show. A free–wheeling five minute work celebrating words and music, this had the real Last Night of the Proms spirit to it. Alas, it was followed by Tchaikovsky’s tawdry Capriccio Italien and an unnecessary arrangement of the Rococo Variations for viola. Tchaikovsky wrote his Variations for cello because the music is cello music and it sounded thin and unsubstantial for the viola. Why make such an arrangement when there are far too many original works for viola and orchestra which go unheard? It’s true that Maxim Rysanov is a highly gifted violist as he demonstrated to perfection in Vaughan Williams’s Suite, from which we heard only two short movements. It’s an attractive piece, but it’s British so we didn’t get the full work.

Richard Strauss was certainly one of the great song composers and Freundliche Vision and Ständchen are certainly two of his greatest Lieder; but the Last Night of the Proms is not the place for this music. These works are too rarified for the atmosphere the Last Night is supposed to generate. Renée Fleming didn’t seem too happy with the Lieder, at least when I could hear her from where I was sitting, and was more at home with her two arias from Czech operas. In another context these would have been most welcome but not here.

It was good however to hear Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens in the large space of the Albert Hall, and it made a positive effect, with words by John Milton and marvellous singing from the massed voices of the BBC Singers and Symphony Chorus. Chabrier’s Joyeuse marche is also a real gem but here it was too heavy handed to be really successful.

I have to say that by this point in the show I was so disillusioned about the validity and worthiness of the enterprise that if Jirí Belohlávek, at the end of Wagner’s Bridal Chorus, had turned to the auditorium and asked if any member of the audience knew of any ‘just impediment’ as to why the concert should not continue, I would have stood up and told him that it was boring.

And boring sums up my feeling about this year’s Last Night. There was little or no sense of people having a good time, no party spirit and it all felt rather forced and jaded although that clearly wasn’t Jirì Belohlávek’s fault: it was simply that no one really present seemed terribly interested. A return to a tried and trusted formula is needed to stop the rot which has slipped into the Last Night programming and if the BBC really wants to bring the house down, might I suggest that it repeats that Last Night programme from 1993 with Paul Daniel in charge next time. Then we’ll know just how much fun a Last Night of the Proms really can be.

As a season this year’s Proms has been the most successful ever apparently. More than half the concerts were sold out, the overall average attendance was 92%, an increase of 5% over last year and Roger Wright, director of BBC Proms and Controller of BBC Radio 3, was reported in the Telegraph as saying, "I am absolutely delighted that we are on course to celebrate a record year at this year's Proms. ….The incredible attendance figures are a testament to the spirit of the Proms audience, and their eagerness to embrace both core classical music and the more contemporary performances [music] which help to attract people into the Albert Hall who wouldn't naturally go. ….With such an immensely diverse range of programming, the Proms continues to demonstrate the BBC's ongoing commitment to the arts."

Here is proof, if any were needed, that Henry Wood’s desire to bring great music to the largest number of people possible, continues to be a truly great ideal. It is also worth mentioning that the Promenaders collect money at the end of each concert for musical charities and as of tonight they had collected in excess of £86,000 – a magnificent achievement.

Despite these criticisms I enjoyed my time this year in the Albert Hall, but once again, I must ask the planners why, when the Sydney Symphony appeared, it didn’t play any Australian music, or why the BBC Welsh Orchestra neglected to play any Welsh music – surely bad decisions for all concerned. This smacks of lack of foresight by the decision makers, and one hopes that next year will achieve even better houses and more sensible programming.

Bob Briggs

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