Last Night of the Proms

Well, the parts are enjoyable, as usual, and the soprano was superb, as was the orchestra and chorus, but why so much chitchat?

More music, less talking please.

the parts
the musical parts

Even those silly berets made an appearance.

I enjoyed it but I thought Angel Blue was a little restrained with her choice of outfit for Rule Britannia. Just a small Union flag on her hat!

I used to love the OTT, flamboyant costumes and the tongue in cheek patriotism. It all seemed a bit restrained tonight.

Never mind. The music was great as usual.

I really enjoyed it, but agree there was too much talking - did we care that the host liked women's and under 18 football - no.

merlotgran

I enjoyed it but I thought Angel Blue was a little restrained with her choice of outfit for Rule Britannia. Just a small Union flag on her hat!

I used to love the OTT, flamboyant costumes and the tongue in cheek patriotism. It all seemed a bit restrained tonight.

Never mind. The music was great as usual.

I loved her blue dress!

But I suppose she could have worn a Union sash over it.

I had to escape to the kitchen when Gary Lineker appeared! WTF?? But thank goodness he was only on for a minute or two.
Very enjoyable, as always, though.

Witzend

I had to escape to the kitchen when Gary Lineker appeared! WTF?? But thank goodness he was only on for a minute or two.
Very enjoyable, as always, though.

Well, I thought I'd wandered over to Match of the Day instead.

There just seemed to be something lacking this year, not the fault of the performers (excellent as usual) or the audience but the BBC presentation in general.

The BBC seems to be getting rather a lot wrong these days.

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Both reported.

I think the Last Night sums up the British perfectly. So many people singing Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory while waving EU flags. And why not?

I agree that they are dragging in far too much talk. It's an evening of music, not endless chit chat. In the days (long ago) when I was there I loved Auld Lang Syn at the end, when we all held hands and promised total strangers that we'd be back next year.

It seems to be a thing . At one stage I switched to the British site for the Olympics but soon switched back to our local one because they just seemed to drone on and on. Why don’t they shut the f up and let us enjoy what artists/ athletes are actually doing ? The Americans are even worse.

I was really looking forward to it .
But the chit chat drove me mad -I closed my eyes for a second and dozed off !

I think the proms has lost the plot in general now. I have very very wide taste in music, but have always loved the proms for being a go-to season of classical music at its best.
Now there seems to be an obsession to diversify the event by watering it down. I remember last year the had a folk prom which was hopeless ... I knew a lot about this as my family was involved ... it watered down the folk music by trying to include a full symphony orchestra as a nod to its being the proms. We finished up with the worst of both worlds ... the true folk element was diluted, as was the classical element.
Bring back the real proms!°

Totally agree with you, Luckygirl, more, not less classical music.

Go away Josh. Whatever you are selling we don't want.

Back to the Proms. Lovely music as always. Apparently the BBC were giving out EU flags to people as they arrived!

Allira

Witzend

I had to escape to the kitchen when Gary Lineker appeared! WTF?? But thank goodness he was only on for a minute or two.
Very enjoyable, as always, though.

Well, I thought I'd wandered over to Match of the Day instead.

There just seemed to be something lacking this year, not the fault of the performers (excellent as usual) or the audience but the BBC presentation in general.

The BBC seems to be getting rather a lot wrong these days.

Dumbing down. A holy horror of being seen as too ‘posh’/elite.

Bring back the real proms! 👏👏👏
Well said, Luckygirl
I did wonder what Sir Henry Wood might be thinking

I thought it was me being an old fuddy duddy.

Nothing wrong with EU flags. We need that relationship.

I thought the promenaders were more restrained this year, I’m sure that in previous years there were more whistles and bangs from them. And there was usually someone “conducting” the music too, (along with real conductor).

On dear, I was bored ☹️

I have also been disappointed with the "commentators" in the box during the televised proms. There used to be real experts guiding us through the music, its composer and history etc. Now we have Clive Myrie, who had clearly mugged up on some stuff beforehand but had nothing of real depth to say - he was there as a "celeb".

There is also the issue of which proms are televised. I love watching a live orchestra at work, and TV is an excellent medium for this - they can hone in on particular instruments when they are featured and add something special to the experience for the TV audience. The choice of the populist events to televise cuts down on the number of orchestral concerts that can be seen on TV.

I love music of all sorts - I am far from being a musical snob - but why try and dumb down the proms? - Glastonbury (and other similar festivals) are not "dumbed up" - they are unashamedly what they are and fans can attend secure in the knowledge that will get what they signed up for.