(1926-2022)
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Royal Albert Hall, London
Angel Blue would have sung…
Samuel Barber | Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Valerie Coleman | This Is Not a Small Voice (UK premiere)
From a friend in the Albert Hall: “National anthem was followed by a beautiful rendition of Nimrod. A shame we couldn’t have had the slow movement of the Eroica.”
Yes indeed. There could have been no better way to mourn the Queen’s passing than to sit quietly in the vast expanse of her relative’s mighty Hall and listen to the greatest funeral March ever written performed by the marvellous Philly.
RIP Your Majesty.
indeed all Proms cancelled I hope this means all football will be cancelled on Saturday also….
I was coming on Friday an excited about hearing the Florence Price live for the first time.
As Sir Simon Rattle has commented re. the use of Nimrod as a memorial piece, ‘no-one has died’. Rather, it is a portrait of a deep friendship. Nevertheless, listening to it in this evening’s context at the Albert Hall was for me an unexpectedly powerful experience, wretched murmurings of mobile phones notwithstanding. Maybe they would have eventually calmed down with the Beethoven, but in the event, this evening’s timing felt somehow right and appropriate. Cancelled football this weekend, or indeed any sport? Don’t hold your breath, pjl.
Or Elgar’s ‘Nursery Suite’ – dedicated to the Queen when she was six years old – at the recording session, with Elgar himself conducting, the then Princess Elizabeth asked Elgar to repeat ‘The Wagon Passes’ – her favourite movement in the work – which he did.
The recording of the “Wagon Passes” took place on June 4th 1931 according to Jerrold Northrop Moore’s “Elgar on Record” It took place in the Kingsway Hall and was attended by the Duke & Duchess of York (no mention of Princess Elizabeth being there) and according to the Daily Sketch report “the Duchess asked for a repetition which went better than before”
I understand and appreciate the disappointment felt by music-lovers at the cancellation of the remaining Proms, including the Last Night. However, let us not be mean-spirited towards the death of someone who has carried the flag for Britain for 70 years. Whether or not one is a royalist this is a worthy and commendable achievement. And it does in fact appear that sporting events have generally been cancelled or postponed.
This concert should have taken place. There was no notice: the orchestra was there, the audience was there, just make an announcement that the Queen had just died, have a minute’s silence, play Nimrod and the Eroica has a great funeral march. The Barber is nostalgic and poignant.
The announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth was made at 6.30pm. The concert I suspect began at 7.30pm. Allowing for necessary discussions between those involved, when should prior notice have been given and what form should it have taken?
This must have been the shortest Prom in the history of the Proms, five minutes?
I wish I had been there to witness and experience such a unique occasion.
It must have been an indiscribably emotional and power moment.
It was indeed a emotionally charged fifteen minutes. I was glad to have been there. But fifteen minutes is about how long the Eroica Funeral March lasts. A missed opportunity, as has been said. And I say again: Nimrod…not a memorial piece. No-one has died. Rather, it’s a portrait of deep friendship. My heart sinks when I hear it transposed down a moribund perfect fourth on Remembrance Sunday.