Royal Albert Hall
It's Friday night, I have finished work and run 10k, and tomorrow I am attending the biggest party on Earth. And yet, there is something of a melancholy about me this evening.
I switch on the kitchen radio and tune in to BBC Radio 3 at 19:30, for the last time, to listen live to The Proms 2025. This routine has become a 'Groundhog Day' motif this summer and, while has often been a pain, gets nostalgic when it comes to an end. This is my own Last Night of the Proms. But all things must pass, and Andy's BBC Proms Marathon 2025 is no exception.
Earlier today I saw the news on social media that Brian May and Roger Taylor have been announced to play tomorrow night's 'Last Night of the Proms.' Great news in my book! Bill Bailey as well, so that should be fun. I saw some mixed opinion in the comments, with some remarking of a 'dumbing down' of the Proms etc etc. These are the same morons who will castigate you for enjoying classical music 'just because it was on a film'. If it was up to them, The BBC Proms would be running a very unimaginitive roster. Not every act has been my cup of tea, but I do understand the need to cater to a wide and diverse taste, especially in today's world, else The Proms Go Bust. [I can see the headline now with Henry Wood's bust as the accompanying image]. Don't get me wrong, I have been known to quip that - if you ask someone who is a bit dense who their favourite bands are - you will always get the same two answers: Fleetwood Mac and Queen. But here's the thing: I like those two bands as well. And the favourite composers of the aforementioned classical music snobs? Mozart and Beethoven.
Tonight's Prom is a love-themed Prom. What do I know about romantic love, I hear you all ask? Not very much, as it goes. Now - if it's unrequited love - I'm 100% your man! I know much about the sense of coming second place (or third...). I know the feeling of looking at that special someone, happy and excited to be with someone else. I know that sinking feeling when you go out on a first date and she walks out on you half way through. I know the embarrassment of when somebody asks 'is it because you prefer boys?' And I know the sorrowful reflection upon reaching your mid-thirties, thinking you might have had a family by now but that it's getting a bit late in the day. But - to lighten this up a bit - I also know the joy of a life lived exactly how I have scripted. Of travel, of music, of meditation. Of blogging eighty-odd BBC Proms without hindrance, and to hell with the consequences!
So, the first piece tonight is Strauss's Don Juan, and I have known a handful of these cads in my time. Oftentimes they have run away with the object of my own fancy. However, too many times have I seen the rise and inevitable fall of 'love's young dream'. Such are the themes of this piece of music, so I take satisfaction in knowing I got something right.
We then have Leonard Bernstein's Serenade. Unfortunately I don't absorb much of it, being now too encased in my own self-pity [it'll pass in a minute - always does.]
What better way to lift my mood than the announcement of an encore drawing from Johann Sebastian Bach - they know my Achilles heel! It's the final movement of Bach's violin sonata no.3. A Proms debut apparently - madness!
After the interval it is Daphnis and Chloe by Maurice Ravel. The whole thing is magical. It's a piece of burning glory. I am biased, though, because the last word of this Prom becomes 'Chloe'. This is the namesake of my baby niece, and so, for me, it's a reminder that love is not just romantic. Love is familial. And with regard to the next generation, love is a duty.
My Fridge Door.
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