The Proms Season has been announced.

[tjwmason]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms

As one would expect - oodles of Mozart, also quite a lot of Shostakovich, and plenty of new pieces too.

I've only scanned through it quickly - but I expect that I'll be making the short trip into London from here a few times this summer.

[swimboy]

1. and well you might!

My picks:

Monteverdi

Barber
Berg
Britten

and I would go to hear someone I was unfamiliar with. That may not be possible for you to do.

[tjwmason]

2. I'm already booked in for Cosi fan Tutte

As I thought it better to get seats when it's that long, on the other hand I'm going to prom for Siegfried just to be bloody minded. :eyes:

The Monteverdi definitely looks wonderful - but it's a late-night prom which makes a terrible dash back afterwards...I'll be tuning in on the radio for sure, also given the size of the hall I@m told that works like that an get a bit lost in the space, but they are well miked for broadcast.

The less I say about Barber and Berg, perhaps, the better. ;)

I'm not sure which others I'll go to - quite possbly deciding on the day itself.

As to what isn't possible for me to do, I'm trying to figure that one out - whether it's a comment on my intransigence or not...

[swimboy]

3. No, it's a comment not on your intransigence

though that is the stuff of legend, but on the breadth of your familiarity with music.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. I think the whole world should agree on a Mozart ban for one year.

Not that I don't like Mozart, but it's so fucking overplayed; and overdone at the expense of a lot of other good music that SHOULD be getting at least some spotlight time.

[tjwmason]

5. One has to give him his anniversary year.

But I certainly know what you mean - I think that after so much this year, next year would be a good time to take a small break.

On the otherhand, if that were to happen it's likely that the music replacing him would be pretty much the same other music which is already over-played.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. You are right on both counts - he does deserve his anniversary year,

and even if the world agreed on no Mozart for a year, to give other composers a chance in the spotlight, he would just be replaced with yet even more Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, and Brahms.

What we need is an agreement that there will be no Mozart, and all normally otherwise Mozart-filled spaces to be replaced only with 20th century composers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I could go for that:

There's a lot of newer music that isn't "scary." I think the reign of the atonal composers* soured a lot of people on the idea of contemporary music.

*While ushering for concerts during graduate school, I developed the theory that there is really only one atonal string quartet in existence. The composers of the 1950s and 1960s passed it around and each put their names to it.

You've heard it; I know you have. It starts on, say, F-sharp, goes down to C, and then up to B, followed by a chord that sounds like someone falling face down on a keyboard.

It wanders aimlessly through four movements, the last of which ends with furious sawing away at 16th notes, with the instruments playing in parallel fourths and fifths. It all stops abruptly with one of the violins pizzicato-ing one random, very high note.

Sound familiar? :-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. I'm really jealous

What a fantastic line-up.

Minnesota Public Radio broadcasts the Last Night of the Proms, believe it or not, and it sounds like such fun. The audience knows how to behave during a concert, but they also know how to have a good time.

I'm actually going to be in London within striking distance of the Royal Albert Hall on two occasions (once with the tour group and once on my own for two days before flying out).

What is "promming" exactly? It sounds like standing in a mosh pit or something.

[tjwmason]

9. Not quite a mosh pit - but close.

Along with all of the usual fixed seating in the hall, for the Proms season the area at the bottom, and the gallery right at the top are open to people who want to stand. It costs £5 per ticket (a fraction of the seat price), and there are no prior reservations - this idea of making the music available to everybody was a major part of the original thinking behind the Proms.

[swimboy]

10. Similar to what we call Standing Room

:hi:

What's your next Proms outing scheduled to be?