Paul Randall
A marvellous programme of 'English music' - yes, I know. Tippett's roots were most firmly grounded in English soil (like Paul Nash's paintings) and if sometimes there are cultural dog-legs (again, like Nash), then I'll happily tolerate them for the music of this wonderful figure in our cultural life.

Eric Benjamin
"Tradition and modernism are irrelevant. What matters is to be true to oneself." I don't know the Triple Concerto but from what I know of Sir Michael and his other works (Symphonies 2&4, Concerto for Two String Orchs, Piano Concerto, "Child In Our Time") he was always and ever "true to himself". I'm sure he could appreciate the difficulties you experience with the Triple, and I wish I could help you hear his art. I'll just say that I am sitting in Ohio drooling with envy that you all have the opportunity to hear such music in live performances. Fortunately, I can participate in the Proms via the BBC on the internet. What an amazing musical culture to hold such a festival and to produce a composer such as Tippett - challenging, thorny, difficult, risky...but so it is with great art and great thinkers and artists. Vaughan Williams would surely agree, I expect.

Graham Voisey
I am emotionally shattered after the ecstasy of VW5.I just hope that the BBC can issue it with the BBC Music Magazine

Bjarne Stange Nielsen, Denmark
Came all the way from Denmark to hear this concert. Being a big Vaughan Williams fan, I was very excited, and was not one bit disappointed, Brilliant performance and a great and inspiring conductor with a very good orchestra. The soloists in Tippet did a great job, although I would never want to hear this piece again, I was so tired before the symphony after hearing such a long row of dissonances that I didnt think the excitement I had for hearing the Vaughan Williams would survive, but after the first few bars with the horns and further on I had tears in my eyes for the rest of the evening. Great evening. More Vaughan Williams, please, and I will come all the way from Denmark again.

John Rimington
Prom No 20 the first of the brass proms was simply great from beginning to end something to really lift the spirits. Hope we see more in the future.

Paul
The day after 9/11/01 the local classical radio station in Boston broadcast a recording of the Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony and hearing it after the fearful cataclysm of the previous day brought a serene sense of acceptance and grace to me. I think it must have been the same sort of experience for those at the 1943 proms. The comforting sense engendered by Vaughan Williams that "it will all work out" makes the cares of the world a little easier to bear. I was privileged to attend a performance of the VW Fifth with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis a few years ago and it was a sublime experience. I was gratified to be able to listen again to this wonderful piece via your live broadcast.

James Dixon
First, Delius. A magical piece, which should by rights be a Proms staple. Then Tippett, and the problems began. I don't know if new Proms controller Roger Wright reads this page, or if anyone in contact with him does, but if so can I tactfully suggest such sharply juxtaposed programming has long outstayed its welcome. I have tolerated some pretty bizarre clashes in the past - Maderna and Tchaikovsky, Nancarrow and Bernstein - but this really was the worst yet. I am nearing 40. I have had time to work out roughly what I do and do not like. Having struggled with Tippett in the past, I decided to give him one last go, but like fellow critic 'Steve', I found the only pleasure came from the realisation I need never suffer this arid chaos again. I believe the majority of the audience felt likewise. The applause spoke of admiration for the soloists' technical accomplishment, but little else. Faces of bemused disappointment predominated in the bars during the interval. Genuinely catholic (schizophrenic?) musical personalities in the Rattle-Kenyon mode are very rare, and this policy of 'you can have your Beethoven when you've eaten up your nice Birtwistle' is patronizing in the extreme.

Nobody would forcefeed a Boulez audience Eric Coates before allowing them their idol. And before anyone tells me Delius is traditional and complacant whereas Boulez is modern and commendable, let us remember the words of Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose Fifth Symphony banished all memory of Tippett by casting its usual mystical spell after the interval: "Tradition and modernism are irrelevant. What matters is to be true to oneself."

Colin
Last night's Prom was a fantastic reminder of how lucky we are to have such wonderful English composers and performers. Each of the three works on the programme was performed with the utmost sensitivity and musicianship, the ensemble and the orchestral solos were superb. The Tippett was lyrical, bold and melodic, with Tippett's Indian summer reflections of Bali, and the superb and dramatic enthusiasm and committment of the soloists. Vaughan Williams 5th was one of the most exquisite and perfect performances I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis.

Ali-gretto
This was the perfect cheer-up event for a cold, wet, July night!The Delius was very pretty and beautifully played.I felt the Gamelan influences in the Tippett, though interesting in themselves, were not really integrated into his usual sound world. There was no doubting the commitment of the 3 excellent soloists. If there is a more gorgeous late - 20th century symphony than the Vaughan Williams number 5 I don't know what it is!The playing was simply sublime, particularly in the last movement. Sir Andrew Davis and the BBCSO managed to silence the season's most bronchially challenged audeience with a deeply moving performance.

Steve
I won't be sad if I never hear the Tippett again. The kindest comment I can muster is that it was 'interesting', but it's not music to my ears. I believe our brains are not wired to enjoy this disjointed and discordant sound. On the other hand, the Vaughan Williams was lyrical and entrancing. Well done BBCSO and Sir Andrew. And well done the audience for holding the silence at the end. Perhaps no-one wanted to break the spell the music had cast.