What a treat.

For lovers of REAL music the 2010 proms starts in fabulous style on BBC 2 tonight with Symphony Number 8 by Mahler. This is a truly monumental work and is nicknamed the symphony of a thousand, although there are never quite that number of performers. I attended a concert by Simon Rattle in Symphony Hall, conducting the National youth Orchestra of Great Britain, featuring well over 600 performers, including an over sized symphony orchestra, several massed choirs and eight soloists, one of whom performs off stage, usually from a balcony, giving an eerie distant sound. The finale is stupendous and a link is given below. YOU LUCKY PEOPLE,

Hey, that was very cool!

To me though, nothing could touch Beethoven's 9th. Especially the Ode To Joy finale.

I like Beethoven's 6th Symphony - The Pastoral



Mahler's conducting style, 1901, caricatured in the humorous magazine Fliegende Blätter

Thought you might like this one!

I love most good music, including classical, jazz of all types, big band, brass band, opera etc etc. I just cannot tolerate kids shouting or chanting while they strum the strings of a guitar and claim to be playing the damned thing.

You will probably have guessed that even with an overall taste for many types of music, Mahler is my all time favourite.

I like a wide variety of music; Blues, Jazz, Classical, Pop, Rock, Swing, Bluegrass, Folk, Celtic, etc., but I'm a huge fan of the Blues and Jazz (the only American contributions to the musical world.).

Diana Krall is my favorite Jazz singer / piano player.

Dvora'k # 9 New world symphony. As well as Celtic, rock, some blues, some Jazz.

I loved watching the proms when I lived in England, I moved to the USA in 1994 and can only watch some of the proms on the local Public Broadcasting Station (PBS).
Thanks for sharing this!

Oh happy days. In a part of my youth, I lived in London. The prom season was always something to look forward to, and the final day a must. The atmomosphere, from musical students to just plain listeneres, was undescribable.

Mahler is a bit heavy for me. Partly for sentimental memories, partly because of sheer joy, I have to vote for Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. After the initial crescendo, that second movement still, in my old age, brings tears to the corners of my eyes. - Maybe associated memories mixed in there, also!.
My musical hero at the time was John Ogden, who immortalised the work.

We saw him many years ago in Buxton Derbyshire. We wondered who the couple of honeymooners were who spent hours canoodling in the corner of the hotel lounge. Imagine our surprise when we turned up at a concert featuring Grieg's piano concerto, to see him in his tail coat waiting to go on stage as the soloist. He was brilliant.