Peter Burke graces the Proms

[HallamPhil]

It was good to see our member Peter Burke in his best bib and tucker placing a garland around the bust of Sir Henry Wood at tonight's Last Night of the Proms! Well done, Peter.

[High Peak]

I knew I recognised him from somewhere but couldn't remember from where!

[Southern Comfort]

A pleasure to see him in dinner jacket and bow tie instead of his customary Last Night red T-shirt!

[Peter]

Thanks, Phil. It's the only aspect of the Last Night that remotely resembles liturgy!

On the other hand, there was a late-night Prom on 4th August after which the house lights faded, leaving the prommers holding little battery-operated candles, which we then extinguished in token of the "lights going out" speech a century before. Quasi-liturgical and moving.

To find anything liturgical at the Proms before that I think we have to go way back to 1973, when on 15th August they had a late-night Prom in Brompton Oratory ncluding Palestrina's Missa Assumpta Est Maria interspersed with Gregorian chant and organ works by Bull, Fresobaldi and Titelouze. It was billed as a "Liturgical Mass for the Feast of the Assumption" but whether it was actually a Mass or a concert recreating music for one I don't know as I didn't get to it.

Whether the staged St Matthew Passion the weekend before last counts as liturgy or theatre I'll leave others to debate. I couldn't go myself and have heard mixed reactions from those who did: some found it extremely powerful and moving, others found it OTT.

[Southern Comfort]

To find anything liturgical at the Proms before that I think we have to go way back to 1973, when on 15th August they had a late-night Prom in Brompton Oratory ncluding Palestrina's Missa Assumpta Est Maria interspersed with Gregorian chant and organ works by Bull, Fresobaldi and Titelouze. It was billed as a "Liturgical Mass for the Feast of the Assumption" but whether it was actually a Mass or a concert recreating music for one I don't know as I didn't get to it.

I sang in this Prom, and I can tell you that it was definitely a concert and not a liturgy although everything was done in liturgical sequence. The one thing the singers all commented on was how tiring it was to sing all that music consecutively without the spacing-out gaps that the liturgy provides.

[JW]

Wasn't at the St Matthew Passion but was at the Roger Norrington / Zurich Chamber Orchestra St John Passion. It wasn't semi-staged, but it was a very reflective and lovely performance, the intimacy of the performance enhanced by the fact that the conductor was seated. Would have translated well to a (very long!) Holy Week liturgy.