You know - I hate patronising TV presenters. Like that gardening bloke from Songs of Praise. You know the one - he introduced "The Nation's Favourite Prom" on BC1 this evening, and he started by saying "If you're scared of classical music, there's nothing here to frighten you." And then he described the Marriage of Figaro as being like an 18th Century Soap Opera. Well, no, not really. not in any sense. Except for it being 18th Century. And an opera.
If I were Controller of BBC1, I would hope that the Prom transmission would have held the audience from 'Waking the Dead' a story of child abuse and abduction and SPOILER WARNING the murder of a medical student and police shooting a deaf civilian, and, from the News, starvation in Chad's refugee camps for those fleeing persecution in Darfur, and the arrest of the Prime Suspect in the North Yorkshire Double Double Brutal Murder. I think if we can take that, we can probably take even the most challenging music.
Mind you, they cut the 'challenging' from the Nation's Favourite. (Reviewed July 18th, for some reason, permalink bloggered...) On one level, I don't mind the cutting of the Delius; on another level - well, it was part of the Prom, and thus the TV audience is short-changed. And it was naughty to cut Jonathan Lemalu's Boito aria, particularly considering that it was his strongest of the night, and featured a Halle double-bassist on whistling duty. Still, who am I to question the editorial wisdom of BBC Classical Music TV, or whatever they're called this week?
And they also cut Mark Elder's educational and informative chats. I think Mark Elder knows a little bit more about music than Alan 'Groundforce' Titchmarsh.
The soundbites from celebrities were interesting. CONFESSION TIME - I do rather like Michael Portillo*, although I thought the sub-titler was being a little impish to put up a caption saying "Michael Portillo - Don Giovanni". I could have done without the irritating John Sessions saying that the 1812 Overture is like "Jaws". Sorry mate, I heard the 1812 long before Jaws was made. Oh, and Jaws is a film about a shark, while 1812 is a piece of music about a battle between Russia and France. Wanker.
Still, it was enjoyable. But much much more enjoyable to hear it live!
And it would have been far far better to have it introduced by Stephanie Hughes, who knows what she's talking about. There may be a few people tuning in who have never actively heard any classical music, ever, but I suspect that the majority of the audience may own one or two CDs, or have been to an occasional concert in their time, or maybe even....SHOCK HORROR.. play(ed) a musical instrument.
What is this all about - would they have dared to show a Shakespeare play and preface it with "Well, if you're scared of Shakespeare, don't worry, because in tonight's play, no-one goes mad and kills anyone, and some of the language is almost comprehensible, especially since we've decided to cut out the long soliloquies full of metaphor"? Or maybe they would, because nowadays nobody is expected to have a brain - it can't just be me and Michael Portillo*, can it?
* This is not a celebrity crush - I just think our intellects are evenly matched...
Comments