To celebrate the start of this year's BBC Proms, I thought I'd dust off a poem I wrote many moons ago after my first couple of visits to the Proms, and which I posted here nearly a decade ago! Nowadays, I enjoy following the Proms in the comfort of my own home, where I can …
Tag: BBC Proms
An extraordinary house, and promming at Battersea Arts Centre
On Tuesday I was privileged to go on a free tour of the National Trust property 575 Wandsworth Road. This was part of an event for the National Park City Festival, a week of events to celebrate London being declared the first National Park City in the world, and encouraging Londoners to get out and …
Continue reading An extraordinary house, and promming at Battersea Arts Centre
extra time
Inspired by today's BBC Sport Prom, which explored parallels between music and sport, I thought I'd share this poem I wrote several years ago after my first couple of visits to the Proms. At the Proms We remember not to hum along. Wide-eyed, ears pricked, we clasp each other’s hands to stifle rogue conducting, dampen …
encores galore
I'm listening to a blistering performance of Glazunov's Piano Concerto No.2 live on the radio from the BBC Proms, performed by Daniil Trifonov and the London Symphony Orchestra. As the piece finishes, there's sustained and rapturous applause until the audience is rewarded with a thrilling encore. For the last five or so years the BBC …
from cacti to fishermen
In the last week-and-a-bit we've been to three very different Proms concerts. On Friday 17th August, the Royal Albert Hall was packed out for a Prom celebrating the work of John Cage and marking the centenary of his birth. Many of the pieces were visually as well as aurally fascinating, with singers and instrumentalists dotted …
Hilaire 