Tonight marked a shift in my attendance at the proms, as I gladly welcomed the Royal Albert Hall into my back kitchen via BBC Radio 3.
I was unsure what to expect, but I would actually say the absence of the visuals sort of enhanced the experience!
The introductory preamble was muted somewhat by my meal-for-one finishing off in the microwave [a co-op irresistible chicken and chorizo paella that I picked up on my lunch break this afternoon - my Monday routine being somewhat skewered by arriving back from London at 10pm last night].
It’s the BBC philharmonic orchestra this evening (note to self: must once again look up the distinction between concert, philharmonic, and symphony orchestras).
We start off with a proms premiere, Tom Coult’s Monologues for the Curious. And I have to say I am very curious when I hear the music has been inspirited by the writings of MR James. I am familiar with the author’s Christmas ghost stories, so this is surely going to be something dark, erratic, and a bit confusing? The Jamesian imagery certainly came out in the music, and I felt a resoance with my own mood as I sat alone, tucking into my microwaved fare.
Next up we have Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 7. The opening, to my untrained mind, sounded heavy on the big-end brass, and akin to the opening of an early Hitchcock movie. The piece then moves on to some more subtle nuances, and minuscule fanfares. A bit later on I get the feeling of being lost in a forest, and as it progressed I jotted down some things without trying to think about it. They were, in order:
1) A troubled peace
2) Some pomp and a grand statement
3) A confusion between it all.
And that was that. I wonder if my learned friends were as blissfully confused as I was?
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