I have spent some time perusing the guide for the BBC Proms. And I remembered why I never go. It seems that a really enticing piece is always teamed with something by a composer I really don't like, or really don't know. I know it's jolly worthy - by being enticed in by one delightful piece, you get to know the unfamiliar piece, too. But sometimes, life is just too short.
Out of 74, I have ticked (rather than annotated with a question mark) just seven. Two of those are on Jimmy's birthday, and I am sure he really wants to spend his birthday listening to Britten and Taverner at the RAH. Other ticks include Smetana/Mahler; Brahms and Beethoven (but sandwiched by 14 minutes of Harrison Birtwhistle ouch); a concert performance of Das Rheingold (including Willard White and Yvonne Naef, and conducted by Simon Rattle - the other three - Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung will follow in 2005-2007 - so, that's three separate Rings going on in London)*; Dvorak and Schumann, but also Chopin; and Deborah Voight singing Wagner, with a Beethoven 3 in the second half.
Question marks have been awarded where Mozart is teamed with Vejvanovsky, Myslivecik, Martinu and Novak (4 x who); Dvorak, Schumann and Saint-Saens, but with the conductor I took an intense dislkie to at the Barbican the other week; Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique teamed up with Peter Mazwell Davies (no, no, no); Mozart and Mahler, teamed with 22 minutes of Janacek in Czech; Mahler's Das Lied van der Erde, because it's preceded by something by Berio, of whom I know nothing, except that he died last year. I've also question-marked a Monteverdi and a Mozart/Bruckner double-bill. Maybe they should be ticked.
I've rejected Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov beause they are followed by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which I can't stand.
I'm terribly provincial in my tastes, I think. Middle England. Classic FM. I probably need educating. But WTF. I can always listen to the concerts on the Third Programme and block out the unwanted.
If anybody fancies teaming up, you know my email address...
* I'm desperately in need of an umlaut.
