as detailed in a previous
post,
Gwilym Simcock's Prom debut took place on Saturday (live radio, live tv, world premiere of a major commission and solo piano - not bad for a debut and certainly a BBC pound of flesh). Couldn't make it down to London to see it but managed to watch the whole thing on tv. Really nice programming, with works by Gershwin, Berstein, Stravinsky, Simcock and the outstanding Jason Yarde (another world premiere). I thought Gwil's
Progressions was a brilliantly orchestrated and approachable work despite the density of writing, and the orchestra had obviously enjoyed working with him a lot. The piece will no doubt have a long and well deserved life.
The concert will be available on BBCi Player video
here, but is already available for one week in
first half and
second half. I hope someone manages to get it Gwil's piece on youtube.
The other highlight for me was hearing Bernstein's
Prelude, Fugue and Riffs again, with my only (slight) disappointment being that the Proms did not use this as an opportunity to showcase a younger clarinettist instead of the obviously brilliant
Michael Collins.
Watching the Proms live performer interviews immediately before and after being on stage was great, especially when we are seeing the same with athlete interviews from the Olympics. I know not everyone can do it, but I thought Jason Yarde, Gwil and Charles Hazelwood were articulate, measured and completely unfazed. There must be a way of somehow bringing this to the live experience in a way other than pre-concert talks and talking to the audience from an onstage microphone, especially during platform changes that eat up so much time.
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