Music
Proms pleasures
Peter Phillips
The publicity for the 106th season of Promenade concerts focuses on youth and novelty. In fact it speaks of very little else; from which one may assume that the plan- ners of it wish to put forward an image of upbeat change, millennial, looking to the future. However, since they also did this last year with great fanfare (when an incredible 33 per cent of the music on offer was receiving its first performance at the Proms — after 105 seasons), it seems a good moment to stand back and take stock.
This year an even more incredible 'over 40 per cent of the repertoire' is new to the Proms. Traditionalists may be reassured to know that this 40 per cent almost com- pletely replaces the 33 per cent of 1999. But, still, nearly half of something large is a lot of repertoire. It turns out that some of it is music specially written either by young people or for them. In the latter category is the Prom on 18 July entitled 'Youth Pro- ject: Scry', which will feature three specially commissioned pieces, each for a particular young ensemble. On 12 August there will be two Proms under the general heading `Proms Millennium Youth Day', when nine Youth and Children's Ensembles will be gathered for what promises at least to be a large-scale celebration of musicians for the future, with repertoire to match. Otherwise there is the now annual Blue Peter Prom (22 July), and a Young Composer competi- tion in collaboration with the Guardian for composers aged 12-16. In addition there will be 28 premieres of contemporary music (by adults) new to London.
And there is more in the way of innova- tions. The newly minted Poetry Proms will alternate every other Friday evening with the Proms Composer Portraits, together forming a regular pre-concert series throughout the season, each one recorded for broadcast, with Jo Shapcott as the first official Proms Poet-in-Residence. On a dif- ferent tack, the dance band Los Van Van and their compatriots Vocal Sampling will give an evening of Cuban music on 3 August.
The strange thing is that although all the publicity is being aimed at the events I've just described — which might lead you into thinking the Proms was becoming a festival for alternative people with a social con- science — the reality is quite different. There may be a lot of new titles in the list, but I'll bet the pieces in question do not take up 40 per cent of the running time. Clearly Nicholas Kenyon is making the assumption that the enormous following for the traditional Prom concert will con- tinue whatever he highlights in advance, so he might as well talk up what is going to be different — and draw in new audiences. This is the only possible explanation for the absence of any advertisement that I can find of the two concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic (on 28 and 29 August) con- ducted for the last time in Britain by Clau- dio Abbado, playing Wagner, Bruckner, Strauss and Beethoven. (And likewise for the San Francisco Symphony on 30 and 31 August; the Rotterdam Philharmonic on 3 and 4 September; and so on.) There can't be another festival in the world which would not shout about staging concerts like these.
All of which suggests that the Proms, expanding without seeming to contract, are going through a confident and healthy phase. In the large picture, which the Proms customarily inhabits, this is really excellent. My only disappointment is parochial by comparison. Apart from the accent on youth, the only other Proms theme this year is 'God and Music' — a title of infinite scope. Maybe it was hoped that the sheer antiquity of God would act as a counterbalance to the rest, but I'm afraid little has been made of the opportu- nity. Indeed in large part He seems to have become a convenient catch-all for concerts which would have happened anyway: like Handel's Messiah (5 August), Elgar's Dream of Gerontius (6 August) and all the Bach anniversary spin-offs. If the intention really was 'to concentrate on Psalm set- tings' I am a little unnerved that a festival with the resources that this one has at its disposal couldn't have made a better fist of it. What is on offer has the feel of some- thing left to resolve itself while the creative thought was being deployed elsewhere. But I look forward immensely to the concerts old and new.
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