Last of our Proms 2012

This was the night of the penultimate concert of this year's Proms. It couldn't have been a better day with clear blue skies and warm evening temperatures tempting everyone out. We began with an early dinner at Carluccios which ended with coffee profiteroles with chocolate and hazelnut sauce - really delicious. We walked up the road, enjoying the warm evening and entered by door 4 to find our seats in the circle with this precipitous view. There were plenty of promenaders queuing for seats this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concert, Prom no.75, was given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink, a conductor we have seen many times. The programme was:

Haydn                         Symphony No. 104 in D major, 'London'

R. Strauss                   An Alpine Symphony

The last piece has no specific movements, but takes us through a day in the Bavarian Alps. It begins with a spectacular sunrise and so on through the day with cowbells and tinkling streams, waterfalls and meadows. A storm blows up and suddenly there is thunder rolling across the landscape as the wind and thunder machines are brought in. The storm abates, the sunsets and night falls. It involves a huge orchestra with plenty of wind and percussion and a full complement of strings. It was a great performance and the audience really enjoyed it.

We were treated to an encore, which was Johann Strauss II's waltz Voices of Spring. A jolly finale to a wonderful concert and our visit to the Proms 2012.

No 2 Prom is No 69

Our second visit to the BBC Proms tonight was Prom no 69. We heard one of the great orchestra's of the world, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig conducted by Riccardo Chailly. He has apparently been 'recovering' their Mahler tradition and tonight was no exception.
The concert began with some Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. This is a memorial to the dead of the first and second world wars, and is a bit difficult to appreciate, but there was some strong playing of the wind and percussion that made up the orchestra - no strings at all.
After the interval and a complete shuffle of furniture on the platform, a huge orchestra came back into the Hall to play Mahler's 6th Symphony. Though called 'Tragic', it is uplifting with sweeping themes and those wonderful horns, but in the last movement we were fascinated by the playing of what looked like a large cupboard with a sledgehammer, that cut them off when in full flow. This is the hammer of the gods overcoming the hero of the piece who dies - the end, an ultimate finality.