Share / Your Proms Reviews
Prom 8: 800th Anniversary of Cambridge University
- Date Wednesday 22 July 2009
- Time 8.00pm - c10.30pm
We celebrate Cambridge University's 800th anniversary with a concert of music given by a convocation of the university's college choirs and two soloists and a conductor who are among its graduates. As Professor of Music, Stanford taught Vaughan Williams, who wrote his Wasps overture for a university staging of Aristophanes' comedy, and later set verses by a former University Orator, George Herbert, in his Five Mystical Songs.
Jonathan Harvey – who this year celebrates his 70th birthday – and Judith Weir also studied at Cambridge. Ryan Wigglesworth went to Oxford but is now a Cambridge lecturer and fellow of Corpus Christi College: in a Proms double debut this season, he returns to co-conduct the BBC SO in Prom 39. Saint-Saëns was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 1893.
- Vaughan Williams The Wasps - Overture (9 mins)
- Ryan Wigglesworth The Genesis of Secrecy (c10 mins) BBC commission: world premiere
- Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs (18 mins)
- interval
- Stanford Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in A major (12 mins)
- Jonathan Harvey Come, Holy Ghost* (7 mins)
- Judith Weir Ascending into Heaven† (8 mins)
- Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3, 'Organ' (36 mins)
- Simon Keenlyside baritone
- Thomas Trotter organ
- Choirs of King's and St John's colleges
- Choirs of Clare, Gonville and Caius, and Trinity colleges
- Choirs from combined Cambridge colleges
- BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Sir Andrew Davis conductor
- Stephen Cleobury† conductor
- Andrew Nethsingha* conductor
Radio 3 live
- Listen: Radio 3
- Hear every Prom live
Watch & Listen
- BBC Proms 2009
- All Proms broadcasts - available for 7 days
2009 Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July | ||||||
| 17 | 18 | |||||
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
| September | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
See also
Within BBC Proms
On bbc.co.uk
On the web
- BBC Music Magazine: Proms Diary
- The Times: Proms
- Telegraph: Proms
- Independent: Reviews
- Guardian: Classical Music
- Proms reviews at musicOMH.com
- Proms reviews at Classical Source
- Proms reviews at Musical Criticism
- Proms reviews at Seen and Heard
- Dilettante
- the promcast
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external web sites.
© MMIX
Comments
You need to sign in to contribute to this page. If you haven't registered to leave comments, creating your membership is quick and easy.
After the fireworks of the opening weekend - Haydn's Creation, Haitink's Mahler, Andreas Scholl - I suppose there had to be a return to earth, and this oddly unsatisfying concert was it. It started well, with perfectly synchronised entrances from the Prince of Wales and Andrew Davis, as ebullient as ever, a rousing National Anthem arranged by David Willcocks and an effervescent Wasps Overture. But it veered off into fen-deep obscurity from there. The Wigglesworth was worthy but in the end indistinguishable from 101 other contemporary pieces that variously depend on aimless string passages and odd rattles, shakers and clippity-cloppers back in percussion. Simon Keenlyside was more than competent in the Mystical Songs, but not much more. And leaving out the soloist in the final song will always be a let down. The strangeness increased in the second half. Surely Cambridge choirs can come up with a more rousing Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis than the Stanford they chose? And, although Jonathan Harvey's Come Holy Ghost is a fine piece, the complex babble of the fourth verse seemed a waste of the plangent voices of the boys from King's and St John's. Again, Judith Weir's Ascending into Heaven works hard and well at putting a concept into music, but seemed ill-suited for boys who regularly turn King's College Chapel into a gilded corner of Heaven. The return of Andrew Davis to the podium reinvigorated the hall, but, alas, he slowed the adagio of the Saint-Saens Third to the sleepy realm of the soporific. Jolly good, and jolly, though he is, Davis is no Haitink when it comes to finding layers of meaning in slow movements. Thankfully, the finale was fulsome, the organ full-throated and we ended on a high. But, all in all, it was a disjointed and unappealing way to celebrate 800 years.
Complain about this comment
I enjoyed this very much being a church organist and tenor. The Stanford was just right and grand enough for such a night. At last the Proms acknowledged our great church music tradition. The Saint-Saens is always fun. We want more please! Ireland's Te Deum? Stanford in C?
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS