By Julia Hudson
Balloons, Aston Villa, £1 million of sparkling Chopard diamonds and a lot of queuing – as usual, the Last Night of the Proms was a spectacle, and one which hundreds of people had waited through a rainy September night and day to see. We were also witnessing history in the making, with Marin Alsop, the Proms’ first female conductor, taking to the podium for a varied night of music making. The programme looked back at the many composer anniversaries celebrated this season: Verdi, Britten and of course Wagner were all revisited, and Nigel Kennedy and especially Joyce DiDonato provided real ‘star quality’ (Ivan Hewett). Particular highlights for this very fortunate audience member were Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, with a beautiful counter-tenor solo from Iestyn Davies, and Britten’s unusually poignant arrangement of the National Anthem.
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| Jacob Banks at the Urban Classic Prom |
Looking
back a few weeks, though, was a very different evening; the Urban Classics
prom, which I was entirely convinced I would detest and utterly loved. The reassuring
number of regular prommers and their ‘sensible shoes’, as remarked on by Alsop
at the Last Night, mingled with Laura Mvula supporters and sky-high stilettos.
By the end of the concert, to the tune of ‘One Love’ by Bob Marley, beautifully
arranged and directed by Jules Buckley, classical and urban fans alike were
swaying with hands and mobiles in the air (backstage, a senior BBC-er was
thrilled that he had learned how to work his iPhone light). BBC Three’s
coverage attempted to paint the evening as a controversial “culture clash”, for
the purposes of good TV – but every single musician treated the venue, festival
and institution with tremendous respect, excitement and, sensibly, a little bit
of terror.
There
were, of course, countless other season highlights; more than 300,000 people attended
the concerts this year, with 57 out of 75 concerts sold out. It is easy to remember
the ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ proms like the Urban Classic and the Doctor Who, but
sometimes it is the simplicity of the Tallis Scholars’ late-night offering,
with a rapt audience at nearly midnight, or the stunningly vivid Pictures at an
Exhibition from the London Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev. No summary would
be complete without recalling the epic tribute to Wagner, especially
Barenboim’s Ring cycle, where he praised the audience saying “the communion between musicians and public
depends not only on us but also on you, and you have brought so much silence”.
This rapturous silence, with hundreds of people standing stock still, was never
felt more keenly than at the Last Night – one minute, loud cheers and enormous
balloons were ricocheting off audience members’ heads; the next, absolute
concentration as the solo violin sound soared upwards.
In July, Manchester
International Festival programmed music from both the Halle Orchestra and
Goldfrapp. Alex Poots, the festival’s artistic director and CEO, said: “It’s
not helpful to have divisions between the art forms; it’s a remnant of the old
class system.” The Guardian suggests that the Last Night still falls prey to
its “imperialist-era ruts”; but Poots disagrees, aware that creative
programming “inevitably straddles a wide range of creativity, across art forms
and different styles, and the spaces between them.” This, combined with the “quality of listening” remarked on by Director Roger
Wright and the very celebratory nature
of the Proms itself, makes it, in Alsop’s words, the "ultimate showcase
for great artistry and superb audiences".
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| Patriotism and pride at the Last Night |
To
find out what Southern Sinfonia Patron Sir Roger Norrington had to say about conducting the Last Night
of the Proms in 2008, click here for our exclusive interview. What did you
think of this year’s event? Comment below to leave your thoughts on join in the
discussion on our Facebook and Twitter pages!
