Dear Friends
I now have the Proms programme for this summer to hand and so now need to see
whether, following your enthusiastic “show of hands”, we can get a party on its feet
to go to a Prom at the Albert Hall, with the option of going by coach.
The proposal is to go to the Prom on the evening of Friday, 4 August. The two main
pieces on offer are Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Walton’s
Belshazzar's Feast. Both these are Proms blockbusters with Belshazzar guaranteed
to lift you out of your seat. They are preceded by a short piece called Perú Negro by
Jimmy López Bellido (not known to me either!) which the brochure describes as a
“vibrant homage to the dances, songs and traditions of Afro-Peruvian music” - so it
sounds as though it should be good fun rather than hard work.
The performance is given the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under conductor
Klaus Makela who got rave reviews for his Prom concert last year. The pianist in the
Rachnaminov is Yuja Wang.
This concert will be hugely popular. If I am to get 30 or so tickets I will need to be
on the telephone to the box office when booking opens on 12 May. I cannot be
precise about the cost of the evening. The concert is in the top price bracket given
the programme, so perhaps £40-£50 a ticket with a group discount, plus, say, £20 a
seat for the coach, so somewhere between £60 to £70 each.
So if this proposal appeals to you please reply to me as soon as possible