BBC Relaxed Prom
Royal Albert Hall
with the Fantasia Orchestra & BBC Singers
The first thing you want to know is “What exactly is a relaxed prom?” It is a prom where anything goes. You can come and go as you please and when you please – you don’t have to wait for a particular piece of music to finish. You are encouraged to dance along if you are down in the arena or conduct along wherever you are seated.
Because of these restrictions being lifted these proms are particularly popular with people who have young children as a way of introducing them to classical music. It also enables people with disabilities that mean they sometimes involuntarily call out things to bring them along. Nobody takes a bit of notice of any disturbances going on around them.
I wondered just how young a child would attend and was surprised and delighted that babes in arms were brought along (even though they didn’t have a clue what was going on), but other toddlers who were able to walk and run around and dance along to the music had a thoroughly good time and I didn’t notice any children misbehaving at all. It was particularly gratifying to see that many children who were sitting in the stalls asked their parents to let them go down into the arena to join in with the fun. It was all a total delight to see.
Tom Fetherstonhaugh conducted the Fantasia Orchestra and BBC Singers and the programme of music performed was very much a mixed bag. It began with a rousing adaptation of Louis Prima’s Sing, Sing, Sing followed by a rendition of heavy metal band Radiohead’s Pyramid Song which had been ‘classicalised’ for the occasion. Then came Caroline Shaw’s Partita where the only word sung, over and over again was ‘Ah’. Antonin Dvorak’s rousing Czech Suite, Op. 29 – Finale followed and then on to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. The best received piece of music didn’t have any music at all – it was Meredith Monk’s Panda Chant where the orchestra all layed down their instruments and joined in with the conductor and singers and chanted away, stamped their feet and clapped their hands all in time and also had a lot of the audience joining in with them. This was a lot of fun. To conclude we had Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing) which was a marvellous way to end the concert.
This was a jolly good way to spend a Sunday morning and I encourage anyone with the slightest interest in classical music (or otherwise) to go along and witness a relaxed prom themselves when the next one is put one. I know you’ll enjoy it.
⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Mike Linane