Boléro: Rhythms of Spain

Proms on TV, 2026
Boléro: Rhythms of Spain
Royal Albert Hall

After watching the Elgar broadcast on Friday - slop of which I've better stomached on Blackpool prom - it was time to catch up with the Spanish one on iPlayer. And I must say that I found this broadcast much more flavourful. I am watching on my Lenovo tablet; I think a part of me wants to recreate the thrill of watching them onboard the National Express coaches, like I did a couple of times during last year's run. But it is for practical reasons also, because yesterday I had my settees shampooed, and I am allowing them time to dry out.

It was the Spanish National Orchestra's Proms debut, and they present a hearty tapas. We open with Ravel's Bolero. Do I know this tune? Boy do I know it, and it is further cementing Ravel into my favourite composers list. 

Rafael Aguirre plays the guitar in the later pieces, and it is textbook nylon-stringing. 

We have the Concierto de Aranjuez - or 'orange juice,' as they call it on Brassed Off. I recognise the music from the film - it was almost its theme tune? I guess I'll be listening out for it when I watch the 30th anniversary screening at the Royal Albert Hall in October.

Needless to say, Rodrigo's Orange Juice is a welcome digestif. Spain win The Proms as well as the World Cup.

Elgar at the Proms

Proms on TV, 2026
Elgar at the Proms
Royal Albert Hall

It is another Friday evening, and I am learning that the majority of televised Proms are broadcasted belatedly, over the weekends. That is fine, though I am also learning that this year's summer diary is somewhat fuller, and I am therefore not always capable of diarising on the night. 

On Friday I managed a 7.5k run, which wasn't bad. 10k was the goal, but we roll.

This evening at the Royal Albert Hall we have Elgar - a name surely as synonymous with The BBC Proms as Holst and... et al. I am half expecting to see a premature Union Flag flapping in the stalls.

Am I allowed to say that I found the first half a bit lacking? Nothing to do with the performers, and more the music itself? For me, it is not so much the highs, but the gentle lows that redeem this piece and give it its flair. Sounds like it was something of a whimsy on Elgar's part, but I have been known to be wrong. 

After a very short intermission, we have shifted in time. There's a different conductor, and it's a reminder that these broadcasts are not live.

The cello concerto - in contrast to the first symphony - seems to have more depth to it. And I am impressed with the soloist. Reading the blurb on iPlayer now, I see this was actually a 'delve into the archives,' and so now I am feeling slightly short-changed.

Can't win 'em all.

John Wilson Conducts Respighi’s ‘Roman Trilogy’

Proms on TV 2026
John Wilson Conducts Respighi’s ‘Roman Trilogy’
Royal Albert Hall

Sunday 27th July, 2026

Tonight we are transported to Italy via the Royal Albert Hall. A country I am yet to visit, it is high on my wish list. I am assembling a new shoe rack (purchased from my local Home Bargains on Friday night) by my front door while this is going on.

We have John Wilson conducting the Sinfonia of London. It is hard to know which shelf to place them on, but there is something undeniably regal about their presence on stage. 

Walton's Cello Concerto is a moody piece, and thoroughly enjoyable throughout. 

Respighi's Rome is astonishing, and places a heavy-duty demand on the orchestra - a duty the Sinfonia of London are clearly prepared for, puffing discordant clouds of sound into the air. I can almost see them. If Rome is anything like this in real life, I look forward to visiting at my nearest opportunity. There is an exotic sort of mandolin being strummed at one point, and to lower the tone I will confess it sounds to me like the fanfare of Fat Tony and his mob from The Simpsons. 

Rossini's William Tell is the encore - with an audible giggle from the audience - but boy is it well played. These guys are pro. They clean up.

This was my first introduction to these works, and I will be hunting them out again. 

Bravo, Mr Wilson. Absolutely spiffing!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eqvxp6

Prog Rock at the Proms

Proms on TV, 2026
Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man
Royal Albert Hall
Friday 24th July, 2026

Electric guitars and a drum kit on stage. A man conductor with long hair. And the utilisation of a megaphone. This is NOT a Prom for the easily offended. But when one looks beyond these disgraceful acts of cultural vandalism, one finds beauty in the most unexpected crevices. I myself am not a Prog Rock fanatic (I mean, it's all right. Though it's more the domain of my Pa-pa).

There is no distance running for me this evening, as it is a night of solitary celebration - three years in my house today! Like our newly-inducted Prime Minister Andy Burnham, I am Bringing It North with a bottle of Newcie Brown Ale (an old favourite), and the Proms themselves Bring It North this evening, with Jane Weaver's heartfelt vocals on Northern Lights. She herself is from Widnes, I learn now. All dressed in green, which is a brave sartorial choice in this day and age.

There is also an edition of Justin Hayward's Nights in White Satin. This and Forever Autumn are favourites of mine, but do always bring out my melancholia. I attended Justin Hayward's splendid gig at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton, in the October of 2024. It was supposed to be the last gig my terminally-ill friend and I attended, though he had to drop out. My Dad took his place, and after the show the pair of us began a drive to Woking, where we were to attend a family funeral. Needless to say, these songs will now forever take me back to this particular time (but I do, strangely, still enjoy listening to them).

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is, as ever, a wonder to behold. How could it not be?

Another highlight was Crime of the Century - one of Supertramp's finest. Unsuprisingly, it works a treat with the orchestra. It makes me wish, with all my heart, I was there to witness it. Moreover, it makes me think: imagine having bagged an £8 ticket for this concert. Those lucky so-and-so's!

Whether it's in the good or bad sense of the term, this event was Out-Bloody-Rageous.

Black Dyke Band

Proms (Not) on TV, 2026
Black Dyke Band
Royal Albert Hall

As I happened to mention in my FNOTP post, this year's blog is 'Proms on TV' - except when it isn't. 

I will be dipping in to various radio broadcasts if the fancy takes me. Indeed, as I start to write this up at 19:30 on Monday evening, I am listening to (but not blogging) tonight's Beethoven's Ninth.

I knew I was going to make a point of tuning to the Black Dyke Band Prom yesterday, on BBC Sounds. Reason being, in recent times I have developed an interest the Yorkshire brass bands. This is not least of all because I have, through work, made the acquaintance of a former trombone player of the Horbury Victoria and others (including Black Dyke, I believe). As a result of this, I was keen to rewatch Brassed Off, a film I was first introduced to when taking a guided tour of the Piece Hall in Halifax (where a small part of Brassed Off was filmed) a couple of years ago. My new colleague and I had a discussion - my Q's, and his A's - about how these brass bands - with their contests and league tables - came about. I learn that, essentially, the phenomenon came about from industry in Britain, notably the collieries of the nineteenth century, supported by employers and an opportunity for employees to have a meaningful pastime outside of their work - and I do get that. 

The minute they start playing Judith Bingham's FourMinute Mile, it is easy to understand why Black Dyke Band is so renowned. A professional ensemble, the quality shines through. Not the Salvation Army quintet on the local high street at Christmas (as good as that is). I am gagging for a big mug of  builders tea why I'm listening to Peter Grahams's Force of Nature. Can't think why?!

The chat at half time is cracking stuff as well. There are chimes of the very discussion I had with my colleague back in February. Talk of the divisions and league tables of the bands, which help to ensure players and bands maintain their standards. And talk of the music featured in Brassed Off iself: "Who could forget Tara Fitzgerald..." Indeed!

After the break it's some film favourites, including Harry Potter, and concluding with Paganini Variations.

This was a good Sunday afternoon, BBC Sounds listen. It helped me through the odious chore of bleaching my kitchen cupboards. I do look forward to being at the RAH in October, watching the Grimethorpe Colliery Band play alongside the projected film in real time.

........

I thought it would be remiss of me not to take a retrospective note of the the Wonderwall encore (featured on the First Night of the Proms) which I see has become a point of contention on social media. Maybe it should not have been a suprise to see a racket of intelligentsia worm their way out of the woodwork to condemn the piece, and how strong their views are on 'defending our culture' - as if it was ever anything but a melting pot. As we know, the forefathers of this racket were smearing the same shit on the walls in Beethoven's day. 

May I consume my lager and crisps during the broadcasts, or must I prepare myself a smorgasbord of olives and foie gras?

There is a broader theme here, where BBC presenters are disowned for splitting the odd infinitive, saying 'who' instead of 'whom...'. You get the picture.
    "This would never have been allowed at the Proms in 1900," they bemoan. And they're right. Neither would women conductors, homosexual players... all the things that make us blush to this day.

Lest we forget what it actually was: a light-hearted commiserator for the England football team. I do not understand why it needed to be more cerebral than that. Though I concede that the Black Dykes were probably not what the BBC's Director of Diversity had in mind.

First Night of the Proms, 2026

First Night of the Proms 2026
Royal Albert Hall
Friday 17th July, 2026

It's Friday night, and I am back with something of a reprise of my BBC Proms Marathon blog of 2025. This year, I thought I might attempt an 'abridged edition', if you will - touching mostly (though not exclusively) upon 'Proms on TV'. While they did make an appearance last year, the televisual broadcasts were mostly an afterthought, being overshadowed by the radio ones of the same. I regret that my schedule and budget does not allow me to attend any of the BBC Proms in person this time around, though I will be back at the RAH twice this year - for the 30th Anniversary screening of Brassed Off in October, and then for Joe Hisaishi in November.

This evening started well from a personal POV. Much in the spirit of last year. It has been a prolonged heatwave here the last few weeks, though today was slightly (only slightly) cooler. I managed my first 10k run of the year, albeit struggling with the last two, and this has very much put me back into last year's endurance mindset - let's hope I can carry it through the next eight weeks.

By the time my 10k run is over, I look at my watch and it's 18:50. The Proms start at 19:00. Bugger. I still need a shower and to cook my tea [a charming-if-heavy tomatoes, eggs, and chorizo dish, taken from the Joe Wicks playbook]. 

I start watching, just over an hour in arrears, with thanks to the green button and BBC iPlayer. 

The 2026 Proms are having an American theme threaded through them, and I am all for it. U-S-A! I myself have just celebrated the semiquincentennial (thanks Petroc T for pointing that term out), by travelling the whole 2,400-odd miles of Route 66, and then some [2764 miles, to be precise]. It was an epic journey, coverage of which is to come upon the publication of my Route 66 diary entries. 

We have Sandi Toksvig in the studio with Georgia Mann and Petroc Trelawny. I did not happen to know she [Toksvig] was such an authority on classical. The programme itself opens with Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man. An instantly-recognisable tune though not one I realised was Copeland, or that he was American. The conductor is Dalia Stasevska, and I'm sure I recognise her from last year. I think she did one of the Star Wars Proms.

Next it's Gershwin, so I know we're in safe hands. An American in Paris, and, yes, it's cooking. Excellent use of old-style car hooters to give the impression of the big city (very Bill Bailey), and it's my delight to see an appearance of a Triangle within the orchestra - that oft-skitted but vastly underappreciated instrument.

Following from Gershwin, we have Ravel, who I should have remembered had a penchant for American music. The first movement of this concerto almost sounds like a continuation of the preceding Gershwin. It did to me, at least, and I am not saying that is a bad thing. Quite the contrary. The pianist is Yunchan Lim and, like a lot of these East Asian prodigies, his hands are a blur on the piano. It's all about impressive virtuosity, but his interpretation of Ravel is spot on. And his encore rendition of Autumn Leaves leaves the hall with his awareness of sensuality in music. That lad'll go far!

After the interval it's a 'World Premiere,' which is a phrase that never bodes well with me. But my misgivings were completely unfounded. A VERY nice piece with some really intriguing choral work towards the end. Well done Josephine Stephenson on That the sunrise not leave us unmoved.

Finally, it's For St Cecilia by Finzi, who I learn was an English composer. St Cecilia was the patron saint of music and musicians. You learn something new every day.

What ho, what's this then? A cover of the Oasis classic Wonderwall to polish it off, and it leaves me with just as many tingles as anything else on the running order, if not more. Apparently it had become a theme sung to this year's World Cup, where England had been defeated by Argentina not 48 hours before this broadcast. And I was actually thinking that The Proms are my World Cup. They've got it all. Think about it: the preamble in the studio, the running commentary and chat at half time. The ebbs and flows of each dramatic performance. And we bring it home every year at the LNOTPs - the only incidence of hooliganism being party popper innards landing on the stage. 

A rousing kick-off! 

My Tea