Our very own jr8 was on TV last night, singing his heart out in the choir at Last Night of the Proms. I thought the orchestra and choir coped magnificently with the last-minute change of program, and it all sounded wonderful. The composer was brilliant, and looked very moved by the audience reaction as well as the music.
Jr8 looked like he was singing very well, although of course I couldn’t single his voice out. He got his own close-up though! He was on TV! He’s a star! And I’ve touched him!
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And they played it this morning on the local classical radio station. They changed the programming around and I didn’t know it until it started this morning. Damn, damn, damn. And I missed it on tv last night.
Yes, that was me in all my glory. I made sure to stand near a camera just for you. <mwah><mwah>
Despite the killer brochial infection which has laid me low for these past two weeks, I did manage to drag my (immaculately attired) carcass out of bed for this not-to-be-missed occasion. And it was stunning. Despite the few empty seats in evidence, demonstrating that not everyone was happy with the revised program, the mood in the hall was intense. The audience took everything in the spirit in which it was intended, and even stood and sang heartily The Star-Spangled Banner, which for once was (for me, at least) raised above its usual banality by the occasion and the spirit in which it was offered up. Hurrah for the Prommers, the best audience in the world, say I.
There was one inebriated (British) idiot in the upper Circle who kept shouting “Long Live America” and other less than reverent things, but fortunately he was ejected by the ushers during the interval.
Leonard Slatkin made a few touching remarks, but was wise enough to end on an humorous note (if you call the pun of “Would my predecessors have done the same thing? I bet Sir Henry Wood” humor). The Barber Adagio went over well, although I found Finzi’s “The Fall of the Leaf” in the first half (and part of the original program) more profoundly elegaic for some reason. The Tippett spirituals made a nice transition (and served the British-US theme well), but it was the Beethoven which made the night for me.
Singing Beethoven’s Ninth at the best of times is a great experience; in the emotionally charged atmosphere of that night it was wholly transcendent. Maybe it wasn’t technically perfect, but ye gods, I’ve rarely if ever heard that kind of energy and commitment to a piece of music. And from the reaction of the audience afterwards, I think it was heard by everyone there. And, of course, there was a rousing rendition of “Jerusalem” to finish off the evening.
I passed Leonard Slatkin in the hallway backstage afterwards; he was virtually weeping, and was saying to the people around him, “Everyone’s been so nice.” I think it was a hard program for him to conduct; his family is in Washington and he has many friends in both cities (although AFAIK didn’t lose any friends or relations in the incidents). A nice guy and a good conductor.
As for me, I went home and had a good sleep. I don’t have a VCR, and so haven’t seen a tape of the broadcast, but it’s nice to know I got some TV time. I’m taking my fifteen minutes of fame in three-second chunks.
Oh, and Fran? You can touch me any time you want, babe.
Being only an ignorant linguistician, I can’t really comment on the technical aspects of the Ninth… but the sheer power in that performance lifted me out of my seat (and that’s a lot of lifting). Even had me singing along with it. (One of the benefits of living alone, I can get away with stuff like that…) I was also terribly impressed by Leonard Slatkin; he can come again…
By “technical” aspects, I meant it was a tad underrehearsed (well, we had three rehearsals to get it together, but we’d all performed it at least once before), but I’m glad you enjoyed it. I know people in the hall were also singing along.
Incidentally, I was also – finally – pleased with the way the soloists sounded; every single other time I’ve done the Ninth the soloists seemed to be having a “anything you can sing I can sing better” competition, with no sense of ensemble at all. Hurrah to Janice Watson, Alice Coote, Kim Begley and David Wilson-Johnson (IIRC the names of the soloists) for an excellent job done.
