Will you do the Fandango, the typewriter, or the arrows of desire?

That frock! [click to embiggen]

From the Financial Times:

At the end of the (Proms) season the BBC always likes to blow its own trumpet — this year it reported surging numbers for online viewing and listening — but what other festival of mostly classical music can fill a venue of 6,000 capacity (including standing places for Prommers) on so many nights over eight weeks?

The closing jamboree was the most fun Last Night for years. Those who get offended by classical music being mixed with rock, musicals and comedy, look away now.

Indeed. For in a second-half opener like no other I can remember [and we did only watch the second half of the Last Night of the Proms] - as opposed to something in the classical or romantic canon, the orchestra revved up for a tribute to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released fifty years ago this year [gulp!], and the excellent lead singer Sam Oladeinde was joined by Sir Brian May on his guitar, and Roger Taylor on Britain's biggest gong!

Wow.

From one camp melodrama to another, as the BBC Symphony Orchestra launched into Shostakovich's Festive Overture, then followed it...

...with the arrival on stage of our soprano for the night Miss Louise Alder as "Eliza Dolittle", for a 60th anniversary tribute to My Fair Lady! [As I said in yesterday's blog post, this was the second time in two days we were treated to the greatest hits from the movie musical.]

Typically for The Proms, there always have to be some more avant-garde moments in any concert - and the final ever live performance by ace trumpeter Alison Balsom with some virtuosic riffs from Bernstein's Prelude, Fugues and Riffs certainly fitted that bill. There also has to be at least one premiere work, and Rachel Portman and Nick Drake's rather disappointing The Gathering Tree ticked that particular box.

However, in-between, there was another genuine treat in store - as comedian and "national treasure" Mr Bill Bailey dead-panned his way through Leroy Anderson's quirky classic The Typewriter:

He's faboo!

All that out of the way, it was time for our conductor Elim Chan to lead the celebrations and get the traditional flag-waving, party-atmosphere finale started, opening (as it always does) with the "Promenader-pleasing" Fantasia on British Sea Songs, arranged by the season's founder Sir Henry Wood, followed by the return of Louise Alder - in that frock! - with a remarkable rendition of Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia!

Gob-smacking!

By this stage, we're on a roll, flags a-flapping - and straight into another beloved piece (and contender for "the best National Anthem we never had") Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, better-known, of course, as Land of Hope and Glory:

Our throats hoarse from singing along - in our living-room - it was time for the traditional conductor's speech, closely followed by the most famous and beloved of all hymns [if it can be called such, given that its words were from an allegorical poem by William Blake], Hubert Parry's Jerusalem:

With the singing of the (real) National Anthem [and we still can't get used to it being God Save the King, rather than Queen], that's generally it by the time we get to Auld Lang Syne - but no! - Mr Bailey (and the Royal Albert Hall's massive organ) had the last word...

For bringing us an utterly tremendous evening's entertainment, and indeed, for the previous eight weeks - all hail, the BBC!!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

The biggest party of the season - the Last Night of the Proms - certainly lived up to its reputation! Yesterday evening's eclectic concert included a bit of everything - from Saint‐Saëns to spirituals, from powerful Puccini arias to the Pink Panther, from William Walton to Welsh nursery tunes (arr. Grace Williams), and from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's wistfully appropriate Summer Is Gone to the Match of the Day theme (part of a faboo new work Extra Time by Ian Farrington).

This year's soloist, US soprano Angel Blue charmed the pants off the Promenaders, not least with her wickedly flirtatious Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores (Carceleras) (from a zarzuela (operetta) Las hijas del Zebedeo by Ruperto Chapi) [no video of the night, unfortunately, but here she is performing it in 2016], during which she tossed flowers into the audience and even handed one to our conductor Sakari Oramo, who then proceeded to try and conduct with it (until it broke)!

Musical arranger and star pianist Sir Stephen Hough was also centre-stage and, as an encore, performed a hilarious and breath-taking arrangement of tunes from the Sound of Music mingled with bits of Beethoven and Ravel, as well as providing superb accompaniment to Miss Blue's gorgeous vocals.

Following the interval, it was time for the real event - as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and BBC Singers launched themselves into the traditional opener by the Proms founder Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs. Then it was time for Miss Blue to make her triumphal return - complete with Union Jack "joker hat" - for the first of the three songs that make up the finale [any of which could, and should, be our National Anthem], Rule, Britannia!:

...closely followed by a second, Land of Hope and Glory:

After that exhausting double-bill, it was time for Mr Oromo's conductor's speech - in which he compared the successes of the Proms season with the equally-triumphant-for-the-UK summer of sporting events, including the Olympics. Three cheers for Sir Henry, and it was on with the show! The triumvirate of flag-waving, sing-a-long numbers concluded with the classic Jerusalem:

With that, God Save the King, and Auld Lang Syne, it was all over for another year. After eight weeks of serious musicianship, and seventy-three concerts up and down the country, it was just what we deserved...

I even named her Dies Irae*

Madam Arcati and I had our "culture with a capital K" hats on again last night, as once more we ventured off to the simply faboo Cadogan Hall - this time for a very special concert performance of Verdi's Requiem by Twickenham Choral. Heavens, what spectacular experience it was, too!

We've long been particularly fond of the Requiem - probably "Joe Green"'s finest work - and every time we hear that immense drum [and last night's was six feet across! A bit like this one.], we always do the choir's wailing "Aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa"...

...sort-of like this:

BBC Symphony Orchestra and Choruses, cond. Semyon Bychkov - Requiem - Dies Irae e Tuba Mirum [Verdi; BBC Proms 2011]

[Crank it up to 11! Full version here.]

Apart from the brilliance of last night's choir, the faboo soloists and the orchestra, we were also quite privileged to find ourselves part of the retirement celebration of the Twickenham Choral Society's conductor Christopher Herrick after 50 years at the helm [read more] - complete with his rather emotional speech, and afterwards in the bar the presentation of a "book of thanks" from its membership, past and present...

We're still coming down to earth from the experience!

[* In case anyone's confused - it's a pun on the lyrics of a familar Sondheim standard...]

And did those feet in ancient time

[click to embiggen]

A long-standing tradition of ours here at Dolores Delargo Towers is to celebrate the time-honoured end of the "Summer Season" with that flag-waving, patriotic sing-a-long, the Last Night of the Proms!

Traditionally it formed a key part of the annual Proms in the Park concert that "our gang" gathered for in Hyde Park, but that no longer exists. And what with COVID and the Queen's death there hasn't been a full Last Night with an audience for the past three years, so the anticipation for Saturday's event was palpable.

It was worth the wait! Madam Arcati and I only watched the second half of the evening's entertainment (on the BBC, naturally), which opened with a world premiere of Laura Karpman's theme for the forthcoming MCU film The Marvels. [We noted that the entire Royal Albert Hall audience was wearing snazzy LED bangles that changed colour - red, white and blue, naturally - in time with changes in the music; someone must have sponsored them, so we assume it was Disney and that's why the unusual inclusion of that corporation's film score on the programme.]

Our star "players" cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and soprano Lise Davidsen were both utterly remarkable, taking the eclectic selection of openers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Deep River, a Hungarian showgirl's song Heia, heia, in den Bergen and the aria Cantilena from Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras in their stride, before the traditional "party" really kicked off!

The reliable lineup of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Chorus and BBC Singers proved once again that they are the best in the business, and "mistress of ceremonies" was American conductor Marin Alsop, commemorating the 10th anniversary of her being the first female conductor to lead the Last Night - and so the world-famous all-British finale-to-beat-all-finales began, of course, with the traditional "Sea Shanties".

All bobbed-out, it was time for the audience (and their klaxons and balloons and amusing costumes and all) to welcome Miss Davidsen back to the stage - wearing what could only be described as a scarlet battleship (she's 6'2", and towered over the orchestra, and especially the tiny Ms Alsop)! - to belt out Thomas Arne's most bombastic should-be-national-anthem:

An even bigger "audience sing-a-long" followed; Elgar's finest:

Marin Alsop's (mercifully short; some go on forever) "conductor's speech" focussed on her hope to see even more inclusiveness and diversity in the Proms, hailing its founder Sir Henry Wood as a pioneer of "progress" in this regard [to this day, there are always £8/10 tickets available to stand - or "promenade" - at every single one of the season's eight weeks of concerts, including this one] and, in thanking the participating ensembles in turn, elicited a huge ovation for the BBC Singers, only recently under threat from budget cuts.

This done, it was back to the patriotism [despite the presence of so many damned EU flags, given out for free by determined - and ineffably smug - campaigners for the "Rejoin EU Party"], with Hubert Parry/William Blake's "hymn", another national favourite:

And, with the (actual) national anthem God Save the King [the first time "King" has been sung at the Last Night since 1951] and the customary Auld Lang Syne (complete with red, white and blue ticker-tape), it was all over.

Same time, next year? I should bloody well think so!

---

PS We didn't see any footage of the rest of the season (although we listened to quite a few Proms on BBC Radio 3).

This would have been a great one to go and, see, I'm sure...

Vula Malinga - Tainted Love (Northern Soul at the Proms)

BBC Proms official site.

At Auntie's party tonight

On this wet, miserable, cold October July Saturday, I'm mostly lounging around the place listening to BBC Radio.

How about a little celebration of that Great British Institution by Iain Farrington - A Party with Auntie? That'll do nicely...

It may be a little unfair on our Yankee chums, but this piece contains no fewer than fifteen famous BBC programme themes - how many can you name?

Fantasia

All last week our classical radio stations (BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and Scala Radio) have been celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the venerable Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the greatest British composers of the 20th century.

Son of a Welsh vicar, and descendant of both Josiah Wedgewood and Charles Darwin, it was no surprise that he was somewhat of a child prodigy, nor was it unexpected that his constant inquisitivesness led him on a quest to explore and reinterpret the vast tradition of British folk and classical musical history, as well as embracing the "modern".

I adore so many of his magnificent works, and as far as "Sunday Music" goes, there can be very few better ways to chill out than with a collection of his finest...

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Orchestra of the Swan - Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus"

Nicola Benedetti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Andrew Litton - The Lark Ascending

It's about time this blog had a bit of class.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM (12th October 1872 – 26th August 1958)