MaestroCam ahoy!
Post categories: Proms, Proms 2009, Royal Albert Hall, behind the scenes
|22:53 UK Time, Friday, 24 July 2009
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
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!
Comment number 1.
At 09:37 25th Jul 2009, Jon Jacob wrote:Best of luck Mr Kay sir. I'll sharpen my extra special HB pencil especially for the occasion. :)
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Comment number 2.
At 20:55 25th Jul 2009, RolandTaylor wrote:I've been watching it this evening. It works really well. If you are not keen on the service you don't have to press the red button, but if you do it certainly gives you a great experience. I found the commentary very engaging. I'll be interested in seeing what others think. If you didn't have access to the red button or were not interested in using the service during the Prom you can try it out from tomorrow. I'd be interested to find out if people think it is a valuable service once it is up on the website post-broadcast.
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Comment number 3.
At 20:21 26th Jul 2009, Tam Pollard wrote:I recorded this to watch after the normal concert and was rather upset to have it ruined by the annoying commentary (I see now you can turn this off, but can't for the life of me think why you'd want it). Suggest you swap the default settings around (or just save some money and axe the commentator).
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Comment number 4.
At 21:02 26th Jul 2009, Karmann Ghia wrote:Couldn't disagree more with you, Tam.
I know The Planets extremely well as a listener. I conduct choirs myself but I've never conducted an orchestra and certainly nothing as complex as the Holst.
I found Matthew very engaging and not intrusive at all - I tuned in specially to find out all I could about how to conduct these pieces and I was not disappointed. Thank you, BBC - more please.
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Comment number 5.
At 15:19 31st Jul 2009, tansyjuno wrote:My husband and I really enjoyed the Maestrocam and the commentary. The latter was instructive and interesting. Wouldn't use it all the time but it enhanced our experience on this occasion. However we were puzzled by the time lag between the main frame, the cam and the sound. The sound seemed to be synchronised with the maestrocam but the main picture was out of synch with both. This was quite disconcerting. Is it a temporary glitch or something that is inevitable? We wondered if there was a mixing of digital and analogue streams - or something?
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Comment number 6.
At 09:53 1st Aug 2009, roddyofour wrote:I wonder if Peter Schickele might be available. I'm sure that iof asked he be there PDQ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0vHpeUO5mw
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