Last night I went to Prom 73 at the Royal Albert Hall. The programme included Vaughan Williams "Sinfonia antartica" (Symphony No 7), Xenakis "Pleiades" (first performance at the Proms - and last, hopefully!) and finally, Holst "The Planets".
The Vaughan Williams piece was beautiful and inspired by Scott's doomed expedition to the the South Pole. It was easy to get lost in the music ..........
The second piece of music by Xenakis just wasn't my "thing" at all ... very modern, loud and tuneless ... not really what I had gone to the Albert Hall to listen to ... a lot of people walked out in the middle of it - one man in the audience actually shouted "noooooooo!" in the middle of it! It sounded like crashing bin lids!!!
The final piece on the programme was Holt's "The Planets" - this was amazing! I have never sat and listened to the whole movement in one go ... always bits here and bits there. I was captivated throughout the whole performance ... and the Holst Singers at the end was particularly moving ....
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