The Last Night of The Proms

Our review will appear in the next day or two.

In the meantime, feel free to post reactions here.

In particular, I'm interested to know what people thought of the 'vibrato in Elgar' issue?

Last night is always good fun, but I'm not sure if I thought this year's was as good as 2007. I can see why Sir Roger was asked to conduct, linking in with Maestro, but he did seem to add a slightly dampening, lack-lustre feel to the evening. Jiri's English is not that great, but I thought his speech was an improvement on Norrington's. Perhaps time has sqewed my memoreis though!
I thought Bryn was magnificent, and having watched his acting skills the next day on iplayer, I found he was even better than I thought he had been, haivng watched from behind! I'm not sure if the Vaughan Williams piece wasn't a little out of place in the programme though? It was beautifully performed, of course, but it just seemed a little incongruous to me.
I heard it but couldn't locate it, however my parents confirmed (As they were sat nearby!), someone brought their trumpet along in the audience, and joined in all the singalong classics at the end... I'm quite surprised no on stopped him?!

I really enjoyed Anna Meredith work- what did everyone else think?

If that was the piece that people were playing up and down the country, then I have to say I was confused about what I was hearing. Was all this really being played live and combined perfectly? It just seemed so odd to me. On the other hand, it was the kind of overblown camp thing the Proms are good at.

Yes, that's the one.
It was being played live and combined live from all the different locations. The theory behind it - I believe - is that the music was continuous at the Albert Hall and this was the lynch pin of the piece, but it was intercepted by music from the other four British locations, live. Although I admire the ambitious and basically vast scale of it all, there were many murmurings in the chorus that it was too heavily orchestrated. However, I'm told by audience members in the Albert Hall that this wasn't the case. I've also heard whisperings that she may not have been first choice for the commission - I think she only got the commmission four months before the gig. Still though, to get a commission like that at only 30 years old is impressive, so well done to her for securing that!