Interact & Reviews / Reviews

Malcolm Bennett
I am a season ticket holder and expect to attend over 65 Proms this season. I did not attend this concert as in my opinion a concert of Electronic Music is inappropriate to a main evening concert - this ought to have been a late night event. Only 400 tickets were sold ( the seats) and I understand that the arena had fewer than 100 Prommers. I am informed that at least one quarter of the audience left after the second interval.. This concert was a waste of the resources of the Albert Hall and a waste of the skills of one of the finest conductors and of one of the finest orchestras in this country.

Jim Straker
What a contrast to the last Proms performance of Varese's 'Deserts' I heard. Then there were catcalls and many of the audience left during the piece! The taped sections were played by an on-stage open-reel tape recorder and the changeovers from live to tape and back were done with stopwatches. This time was so different.

This was strong music, muscular playing from the superb wind and percussion ensemble and a real feeling of moving smoothly into different - though related - sonic worlds with the tape sections. How did the sound projectionist team manage such a wonderful 3D experience with only an ancient stereo tape as source material?

The contrast with Jonathan Harvey's electro-acoustic works was fascinating; from Varese's antiphonal structure to Harvey's integration of the sound worlds. 'Speakings' came over as an expanded concerto grosso, with the main orchestra contrasted not only with the small group but the projected 'commentary' via the electronics. Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco really suited the huge space of the Albert Hall, where the sounds had room to resonate and fly.

A magical evening. The only pity is that the works are performed so infrequently because of the equipment and technical expertise needed by the sound projection team, as well as that of the orchestra. I hope that in future, as technology becomes more sophisticated and easier to deploy, this will become less of a stumbling block.

Prom 45 was most excellent. The first piece was simply incredible, an amazingly full sound from just one man (plus tapes of course). It was interesting to see the degree of integration between the live and taped instruments to diminish from piece to piece - until in the final piece the taped instruments were highly distorted and working in much more of a call and response basis than the transformative basis of the earlier works. A strong narrative that seemed to say something important about the relationship between recorded and live music and between acoustic and electric instruments; and which finished with the live music having the last word... - ah well, in so far I was able to understand it anyways!

It was also interesting to watch the audience and see how their body postures were affected by the positioning of the sound in the hall - the idea that art can subconsciously impel us to move physically reveals some of the inherent strength that art has - I see the same thing happen when people regard photographs. Using the hall in this way is great, I was only disappointed that all the electronic music speakers were hung at the same level in the ceiling so it was more like listening in 2.5 dimensions than 3!! I'd love to hear a piece that moved the sound all around the massive space inside the hall!

Clive Varley
I did not know what to expect with this Prom but I was very glad I listened and will certainly listen to more of the works by these composers. Thank you BBC for broadening my musical horizons.

Peter Clarke, Norwich
I heard the post-interval items and was alarmed to hear them referred as "music". I think a better description would be "An experiment in electronic sounds". Because of that, it would be better to have them presented in a special programme and not erode the decades of Prom tradition which from Sir Henry Wood's time has promoted and performed real music! Perhaps I missed something pre-interval?