Thanks again Simon for all your hard work this season. It really is a wonderful service you provide by giving these works a life beyond their premiere.
I understand your frustration at the relative dearth of contemporary music, however the Proms has never been exclusively a new music festival, and surely it’s unfair to judge it against the standards of, say, HCMF.
Contemporary music has only ever been one aspect of what the Proms is about – yes, Henry Wood certainly had a commendable attitude to commissioning and programming new works, but the bread and butter of the Proms has always been standard repertoire, as evidenced by the Bach, Beethoven and Wagner Nights seen in the final week of this season.
I would say that for most of the Proms audience, this is one of the few times they will engage with a piece of new music, and if that piece is, say, Dieter Ammann’s Piano Concerto, or Linda Catlin Smith’s Nuages, then that’s all to the good.
Ultimately the Proms can’t be all things to all people, but each season there are a handful of new works that I really enjoy and want to listen to again and again. As a listener, that’s all I can ask for.
Don’t misunderstand me, i obviously know that the Proms isn’t a contemporary music festival, and wouldn’t dream of comparing it to HCMF (which is). But i do believe contemporary music – even if we define that term quite loosely – is greatly under-represented at the Proms, and the festival could serve as a hugely powerful educational tool for audiences, many of whom remain blissfully unaware of anything after around 1910.
Thanks again Simon for all your hard work this season. It really is a wonderful service you provide by giving these works a life beyond their premiere.
I understand your frustration at the relative dearth of contemporary music, however the Proms has never been exclusively a new music festival, and surely it’s unfair to judge it against the standards of, say, HCMF.
Contemporary music has only ever been one aspect of what the Proms is about – yes, Henry Wood certainly had a commendable attitude to commissioning and programming new works, but the bread and butter of the Proms has always been standard repertoire, as evidenced by the Bach, Beethoven and Wagner Nights seen in the final week of this season.
I would say that for most of the Proms audience, this is one of the few times they will engage with a piece of new music, and if that piece is, say, Dieter Ammann’s Piano Concerto, or Linda Catlin Smith’s Nuages, then that’s all to the good.
Ultimately the Proms can’t be all things to all people, but each season there are a handful of new works that I really enjoy and want to listen to again and again. As a listener, that’s all I can ask for.
Don’t misunderstand me, i obviously know that the Proms isn’t a contemporary music festival, and wouldn’t dream of comparing it to HCMF (which is). But i do believe contemporary music – even if we define that term quite loosely – is greatly under-represented at the Proms, and the festival could serve as a hugely powerful educational tool for audiences, many of whom remain blissfully unaware of anything after around 1910.