Concluding Remarks
Norton Cottages - 17th September 2025
What did the BBC Proms mean to me before 2025? What do they mean to me now? Finally, I have ample time reflect on this without more music coming for me at 100mph. By pure chance, I am off work this week. Today is Wednesday 17th September. Even after the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday night, I have been busy. This is how the last few days have played out:
Saturday 13th - Last Night of the Proms
Sunday 14th - Coach back to Liverpool, and Eric Idle at the Liverpool Empire.
Monday 15th - Drive to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Measure for Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre [this now brings me to 32 plays in my other cultural quest to see every known Shakespeare play performed live].
Tuesday 16th - enjoyed some shopping in Stratford in the morning, then drive back home about 1pm (getting home about 3pm).
Wednesday 17th - a much-needed 'lazy day' at home (but I don't like to have too many of these). Time to type up my final thoughts on the BBC Proms Marathon of 2025.
As I remarked in my introductory blog, I had only attended one Prom concert before this year. [Two if you count Proms in the Park, 2017]. Oftentimes I had caught the odd couple of minutes of a television broadcast, but for some reason I never committed. I did always feel like I was missing out on something, though.
Trying to chronicle all eighty-six concerts form this run was inevitably going to be too much material for my brain to cope with in one go. The best I could hope for was that I would retain some 'highlights', and I am pleased to say I have been successful in that. When I was out shopping in Stratford yesterday morning, I wandered into the Oxfam there, knowing full well I would find some discarded classical CD's and vinyl. I came out with The Planets and Grieg's Piano Concerto/Peer Gynt, both on vinyl; a CD of Ralph Vaughn Williams's London Symphony, and another CD of Dvorak's New World symphony (aka the Hovis music) played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Coincidentally, it was exactly this orchestra who played the Dvorak piece at this year's Proms! All of this was music (amongst others) that had stood out to me during these Proms concerts - I would not have been inclined to buy these media otherwise [wouldn't have known what half of them were!]. The point here is that this is what the BBC Proms Marathon of 2025 has ultimately given me: a deeper relationship with classical music, yet one that is just beginning. For example, I am now clear on the difference between a concerto and a symphony - God knows, I've heard enough of them.
The original spark of this idea came from my own romantic image of myself, strolling over to the Royal Albert Hall box office every morning during the summer months. In a roundabout way, approaching the project mostly from radio broadcasts and blogging has made for an even more meaningful experience. I would never have retained all that information by casually rocking up at the hall every day. Instead, I have written about all the concerts and downloaded all the broadcasts for posterity - when I read my blog back in years to come, I can also reference the exact broadcast I was talking about. No doubt it will be as humorous as it is embarrassing.
I was beyond flattered to have been interviewed about this project by Frances Wilson, aka The Cross-Eyed Pianist. Knowing that the blog had picked up an audience was a great motivator for maintaining it, and seeing it through to the end. I also happened to spot that my admission of never having heard of Frederick Delius had prompted an indirect pause-for-thought in one of Richard Bratby's articles for The Spectator, and for that I was tickled pink - so much so that I went out to buy a hard copy which I will keep amongst my mementos. While there is no pride to be found in ignorance, there is something noble in confessing it; and, moreover, to it opening an avenue for new knowledge. In any case, that I got chatting to these good people along the way is testament to the worthiness of it all.
2025 was definitely the right year to have done this. I had an almost-clear diary for the whole 8-9 week run. This is rare for me, and the blank space was calling to be filled with another extreme project, undertaken by a chronic bachelor trying to find the next thing to take his mind off it. What would be the chance of such coincidental blank space in future years? And what of the future of the BBC Proms broadcasts themselves? I think most people are aware that the writing is on the wall for the old TV Licence model. Many a time I have overheard people proclaim - with pride - that they no longer pay their TV licence. While I acknowledge its many faults and checkered history, I personally still favour the BBC for my own consumption of current affairs and entertainment. I find the quality of its content (on the whole) far superior to what you will find on, for example, Netflix and the like - where a phony opinion-piece can easily be dressed up as a 'documentary'. But it is the likes of this, sadly, that threatens the BBC into 'modernisation'. When the BBC switches to a subscription model, will it still be able to fund the BBC Proms broadcasts in the same way as always has, or will it be forced to scale it down to almost nothing? Hopefully it won't come to that, but who knows? The BBC is far from perfect, but we will miss it when it's gone.
And there we have it. It is, genuinely, an emotional goodbye from me. But as I alluded to earlier, this is hopefully just the beginning of a new relationship - not only with the BBC Proms, but with classical music as well.
It's been heaven, it's been hell. I'm sad it's over, but I'm glad it's over.
Fin.
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