Nov-Dec 2012. Last Night of Proms

Saturday, 24th Nov, 7:30 pm. Saint James Church, Lower Hutt. 

Sunday, 2nd December, 3.00 pm. Events Centre, Carterton. 

Review

The end-of-year concert is a fun occasion. Last year it was a set of humorous pieces, and this year we followed a 'Last Night of the Proms' format. For the first time, we were playing in Carterton, at their new Events Centre.

St James flowers Orchestral pieces

St James Church is a lovely venue to play in. It is large, with excellent acoustics, and as you can see from the flowers at right, it is an inviting place to be.

Proms "Last Night" has a format of a posh first half and a boisterous second half, with most of the fun coming from a familiar selection of British 'rouse the Empire' pieces.

Below are pictures from both concerts.
The pieces are not quite as rigorously British as would rule in Albert Hall.  Only two of the six pieces in the first  half hail from England.
The second half ran true to tradition, but was particularly notable for the Mexican Arturo Márquez composition Danzón No. 2. This exhilirating piece is not British, but has been played at Albert Hall in a Proms as well. Part of the traditions seems to be to allow evolution of tradition.
 Something old, something new, be joyous in red, white and blue.

St James

Balloons The posh first half. Not stuffy posh though. The balloons are fair warning of fun to come.

The concert opened with the March from the Karelia suite, then Delius and Vaughan Williams pieces before soprano Megan Corby came on to sing Catalani and Dvorák. The final item of the first half was the ever popular Grieg: "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
Megan - solos Megan - bedevilled horns 
Soloist Megan Corby singing Catalani - Ebben? Ne andrň lontana. She followed this song with one by by Dvorák - Rusalka’s Song to the Moon.

Over the interval, orchestra members added wigs and glossied up the clothing. But they are still recognisable as an orchestra. You can tell the horn player. She's wearing horns. They then started off the 'Rouse the Empire' half with "The Imperial March". Absolutely fitting stuff, even if it does come from Star Wars. If theywould  only allow figureheads on the front of warships again, Darth Vader would look great. 

Events Centre, Carterton

Events centre - foyer Events centre - trio 
The Events Centre was opened only a year ago, and we think this is the first time an orchestra has played in it.
Pictured here are patrons picking up flags and programmes - which have the words to allow sing-along. Some turned up with bigger flags, and shiny colours for the occasion.
Carterton stage The Events Centre has been designed to be quite versatile. The stage can be created for the occasion and packed away again until needed.

This is a picture of the first half. Conductor Brent is still in sober black.


Carterton finale The enthusiastic audience in the Finale.


Higher resolution photos (7) are available on-line in a Picasa Album.