Archives for July 2009

The view from the queue for Prom 16. There's a great atmosphere in the queue this evening and a very eclectic crowd!

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MaestroCam made its debut at last night's Prom. I was going to say 'on schedule' but technically we were behind schedule as the BBC 2 broadcast was a 'deferred relay' beginning half an hour after the concert started at 7.30. Even for insiders the technicalities of a deferred relay are still a bit of a brain-fryer because you think, 'what's actually happening to the programme - how can you start transmitting something while it's still being recorded?' Well I suppose it's like putting a programme on 'live pause' on your satellite box, then waiting for half an hour before resuming playback - only on a much larger scale. Even so I'm not at all sure how it really works!

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Here in the BBC Classical Music Television and Proms Interactive team - we bring you the annual Proms TV coverage - for 2009, on digital platforms, we're rolling out an exciting new service: MaestroCam - press the Red Button and you'll be connected to the camera which is permanently pointing at the conductor.

There's no escaping the fact that conducting is a technical skill, and to make the experience even more interesting, we're bringing in three of the 'mentors' from last year's Maestro TV series, to provide a live commentary on what's going on - a bit like watching a DVD of a feature film where the director's commentary tells you what's happening and why.

The first of these concerts is tomorrow (Saturday 25 July) - Sir Charles Mackerras is conducting Elgar's Cockaigne Overture, Delius's rare masterpiece, Song of the High Hills, and Holst's Planets Suite. I'm producing the MaestroCam coverage for this concert, and earlier today our commentator Matthew Rowe (Katie Derham's mentor in Maestro) met up with our Red Button producer Rhonagh O'Donnell and me in one of the trucks outside the Albert Hall, to try out the commentary during Sir Charles's rehearsal.

Matthew is well-prepared and is a complete natural at this rather challenging task, reacting to Sir Charles's moves and offering a stream of fascinating insights into the technicalities of conducting these difficult scores. The sound is balanced so that you can hear the music clearly, yet Matthew sounds close by - intimate, even - giving a strong sense that he's communicating personally with each individual viewer. Importantly, he doesn't talk all the time - it's a question of striking a balance between allowing the music to make its impact felt while at the same time showing how the conductor brings it to life and keeps it under control.

As the rehearsal unfolds we take note of the fact that Sir Charles, who's in his 80s, after a total of ten hours' prior rehearsal on the programme, is concentrating on the sound balance in the hall: the hard work of the detailed rehearsals is behind him. As such, he is understandably conserving his energies and we expect him to be much more expansive when it comes to Saturday evening's live broadcast.

As this service hasn't been attempted before, there are no points of reference for us; and we decide on an important modification to our plan: for some of the pieces we will be showing the linear TV output as well as the MaestroCam; this is so that important aspects of the scoring - instrumental, chorus and soloist entries - can be viewed when Matthew refers to them.

We're all looking forward to doing it 'for real' on Saturday night. Coverage starts at 8pm on BBC 2. I'll be back on Sunday with another blog to tell you how it went from our point of view. Please use the Comment facility here to tell us what you think!

In the picture, you can see Matthew on the microphone and Rhonagh taking notes at the MaestroCam rehearsal.

If you wish to enjoy the Maestro Cam after the Proms then visit the Proms website. Each edition of Maestro Cam will be available on the Proms website until the very end of the season!

• Write a review of Maestro Cam
• Write a review of a Prom
• Explore the Radio 3 Classical Archive

I talked to Radio 3 presenter Tom Service about the excitement surrounding the shō, an amazing Japanese instrument played in tonight's Prom 10. Listen to our conversation:

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I saw a ghost the other night at the Proms, standing in the arena, neck craned to look around. It was just myself of course, twenty years younger, a little windswept from a hurried bike ride, in the hall for the first time and amazed that then as now you could just turn up and queue for a cheap ticket and suddenly you were in at the very heart of it. The city was new, my job too. Arriving alone, on a whim, and tired at the end of a working day I remember so clearly standing, a little uncertain at first about the whole idea, but then feeling that surge of energy a live orchestra lets rip around the auditorium and a sudden sense of extraordinary good fortune.

Years later a colleague told me of her first visit to the Royal Albert Hall. She was fresh from music college in Ireland, over in London for the first time and looking for a job. One afternoon she and a friend made their way to the Royal Albert Hall with no other plan than finally to see it for real. It was closed to the public but some kindly member of the hall's staff let them in just for a few minutes just to gaze like musical pilgrims at the physical home of the Proms.

I was talking to someone in the audience this week who was there for his first Prom. I hope that in twenty years time he can remember that first night, whether it's seeing ghosts back in the hall or hundreds of miles away listening to a broadcast.

Of course musical memories like this become a way of mapping your life. We'd love to hear your stories.

• Prom 8: The Cambridge Prom at the Albert Hall/Radio 3 - The Times, 24th July
  
  
• Cambridge University Diversity in Proms Show Evening Standard, 23rd July
• BBC Music Magazine - Prom 9, commemorating the memory of the BBC Phlharmonic's most influential conductor, the late Sir Edward Downes

Hello, as you may have guessed we're working very hard here to bring you up-to-the-minute backstage thoughts/interviews/photos.

So, look below and click on a link that takes your interest.

We're going to be here everyday bringing you exclusives from backstage. So, stay in touch.

So, just in case you're looking right now I can serve up a few lovely things for you:

• Listen to an interval chat with Penny Gore and Martin (Penny is presenting the Prom)
• Barry and Phil, both Proms fans, give their take on the first half
• Cheryl from the BBC Phil gives her thoughts on the Prom so far.

I'm posting these links from the Proms production office in the basement of the Royal Albert Hall whilst listening to the Elgar during the second half on BBC Radio 3. Who could ask for anything more?

I met James and Dan in the queue for Prom 9 - they knew an astonishing amount about early 20th Century English music! It turned out, after my microphone was turned off, that they were both composers and very regular Prommers indeed. I'll try and catch them mid-festival to see what their thoughts are as the Proms unravel... Listen to our conversation.

I managed to catch a busy Stephen Johnson, writer-broadcaster, after the Proms Plus event and before tonight's Elgar, Moeren, Finzi Prom 9.



Listen to our conversation.

I've just been sitting with my old cello teacher from college, Philip Sheppard. Tonight, he's been brought in to do some on screen punditry for the first of the BBC4 Proms - he had to dash for his makeup call, but we managed to catch up about what goes on behind the scenes and how he goes about preparing for concerts with new pieces.

Have a listen to our chat here.

• Proms 2009: English music at the Proms - Telegraph, 23rd July
  
  
• Prom 7: The Fairy Queen - The Guardian, 22nd July
  
  
• Prom 5: LSO/Haitnik - The Independent, 23rd July
• The Composers of the Year bloggers are writing about the Proms

I am down at the Royal College of Music following the Pre-Prom discussion.

How did the discussion go? Listen to the host Louise Fryer reflecting on the Pre-Prom talk.

We also managed to catch up with Gregory Stevens from the Proms Interactive team. Listen to our conversation.

• More about this Prom
• Write your own review of this Prom

• The Composers of the Year bloggers are now writing about the Proms
• BBC Music Magazine Proms Diary: Music for the soles
  
  
• BBC Proms 2009: Bernard Haitink and the LSO The Telegraph, 22nd July 2009. 
• Prom 3: Stan Tracey - The Independent, 22nd July
  
  

• BBC Weather
  
  

• Maestro Cam
  
  
• More Proms photos
• Proms backstage interviews
• BBC Weather in SW7
  
  
• The evolution of the umbrella (or bumbershoot).
  
  

I'm one of the Proms Interactive social media correspondents down at the Proms. Earlier I caught up with Producer Emily Kershaw (pictured) after today's Chamber Music Prom. Listen to our conversation.

• More about this Prom
• Write your own review of this Prom

I spent most of the last three days down at the Royal Albert Hall and it didn't feel like a minute too long. It's so exciting to be with the Prommers, the BBC Staff and the performers. I produced the Stan Tracey Prom and was bowled over by the level of musicianship from all of the players. Watching and listening to these musicians prepare and perform is a real treat. I had to keep popping out of the space where I sit with the studio manager, running around to the van where we record the Prom and listening to the superb mix that our Marvin Ware (who mixed the music for Radio 3) created. Have a listen, it's amazing. I also spent some time sitting next to Geoffrey Smith, the presenter, in the hall. The live sound was equally impressive.

Producing a Prom is a strange business, mostly fun, but with heightened moments of stress. Getting the transition right from Broadcasting House to the Royal Albert Hall and back again is where the real challenge lies. I felt that we did a good job with the Stan Tracey prom, but you can judge for yourself. There's also no substitute for rehearsing the start of the Prom. Performers all have their own approaches to getting on and off the stage. Some like to walk on before and settle in, some enter together, some are happy to be guided, but atmosphere is everything.

Last year I produced a late night Prom which featured Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. The performers, presenter and I went to great lengths to work on the atmosphere, getting on and off the stage, introducing the programme to the listeners at home, as well as the Prommers in the hall, and creating a sense of reverence to start the Prom.

The real trick is striking a balance between the needs of those attending the event and the listener's at home.

• Stan Tracey Prom
• Stan Tracey Programme Notes
• Stan Tracey artist profile
• Write a review of a Prom

Geoffrey takes a well earned rest after Saturday morning's rehearsal for Prom 3. Stan Tracey and his Orchestra are in good form.

• More Jazz on Radio 3
• Watch videos of our BBC Radio 3 Jazz Presenters
• Check out the Jazz Archive
• Jazz interviews: Herbie Hancock and more...
• Listen to Prom 3

Petroc is speaking from the refurbished Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at The Royal College of Music, Radio 3's Outside Broadcast home for the duration of The Proms.

Hello, I caught up with Petroc earlier today.

Petroc Trelawny co-presents In Tune, Radio 3's drive-time arts magazine and will be at The Proms throughout.