the curse of television

for the first five years I lived in Melbourne, I did not have a television. While this meant my procrastination developed more creative outlets, it did establish a deep mistrust of the box which continues to this day. Obviously I did not move to the UK with a TV, and managed until last December without purchasing one (even though I had been given two over the eight years I've been here, the last of which I discarded over two years ago). Until late May I managed to pretty much avoid watching the general tat on telly by immersing myself in various DVD series, but since the festival I have been struggling. Thankfully there has been the excellent coverage from the Proms and various other summer festivals. While nothing quite beats a night in front of the box (especially with the summer we've had), I am a compulsive channel flicker and get annoyed with myself for wasted evenings, but only with the value of hindsight. All that said, tonight was a good TV night in with the finals of both Maestro and Mercury going out live.

Despite strong initial scepticism, I have to admit enjoying watching the Maestro series. The first episode was excellent (and at that stage I was putting my money on Goldie), and the second was a fascinating improvement (and my money switched to Sue Perkins where it stayed), but I agree with some comments I've read that what the first episode had that subsequent episodes lacked was detailed background information about technique, why certain scores were awarded, demonstrations of what could have been done better, and a little more engagement with the couch potato than just recognisable music.
I felt Sue Perkins deserved to win (and, alarming myself at my 'engagement', I voted accordingly) because while Goldie had an inherent musicality and very quickly understood what many people still struggle with, namely the concept that music is music and should not be pigeon-holed, I felt that Sue's eye contact, technique, charisma and intellect won her the chance to conduct in front of thousands on Saturday. Both had excellent senses of humour, both treated the whole thing seriously, both respected the musicians they were conducting from the word go, but while Goldie had to 'get' the music, Sue could handle anything that was thrown at her. Really fab that she conducted Stravinsky as her own choice work. I'm sure they will both get future work with professional orchestras trying to engage with different audiences. Keep an eye out for Sue Perkins conducting Maxim Vengerov (who offered the opportunity on live TV so it must be true).
Sue Perkins of course performed at the Lichfield Festival in 2007, and Maxim Vengerov had his UK debut here in 1985.

Regarding the Mercury Prize, I had my money firmly on Burial to win. Elbow doesn't float everyone's boat, so it was good to have my bewilderment echoed by some of last night's commentators. Also very impressed by Laura Marling, and went to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform live in May.

Proms coverage is over in a few days, so it looks like I will need another few DVD series to keep me from completely wasting my evenings between now and next August when the Proms coverage starts again.