BBC cancels Proms
NewsTonight’s BBC Proms concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin was called off in the wake of the announcement of the Queen’s death.
The concert was due to begin at 7.30, less than an hour after the announcement.
The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick came on stage where an official announced the Queen’s death. A minute‘s silence followed. Then the orchestra played God save the King, followed by Elgar’s Nimrod.
No decision has yet been announced about Saturday’s Last Night of the Proms.
UPDATE: The last two night of the Proms have been called off ‘as a mark of respect’.
They’re all off sadly, BBC just announced
Friday’s Prom has also been cancelled, and the Last Night on Saturday.
Friday and Saturday’s concerts cancelled as well.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms
last night cancelled I hope that all football matches will also be cancelled out of respect……
Bizarre. Just bizarre. And all the more so given there was a funeral march good to go in the second half (Beethoven Sym.3).
That’s exactly what happened when the Boston Symphony Orchestra were giving a concert when news of JFK’s assassination was announced:
https://youtu.be/pzKlugGGdos
That’s quite different — it was a presidential assassination. This is a queen who lived a long and full life though I understand the need to pay respect.
Just at a time when music is needed the most !
Kudos to the librarians who must have had to make it happen so quickly.
The BBC should consider ending this seasons Proms as a requiem series.
God bless Queen Elizabeth II.
The BBC has also cancelled the last two Proms, including of course the Last Night.
We can debate that decision though it is of course very hard for those who have booked expensive and non refundable travel and hotel accommodation.
Personally I think the last night should have gone ahead with a revised programme.
However it is ironic that the Philadelphia Orchestra’s two Proms have been cancelled following their disgraceful demand for the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to wear masks for a performance of Beethoven’s 9th a few weeks ago.
The Edinburgh Festival chorus quite rightly refused.
No Friday night or Last. Both are cancelled.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms
There is one upside of the death of the Queen: it has meant that Florence Price’s First Symphony will not be heard at the Proms.
Bitchy … but love, love, love it!
A moronic comment. Not everybody wants to listen to standard fare all the time.
very tastful
Idiotic cancellation. We all die though undeservedly.
This also saves the BBC a lot of embarassment because both concerts were very poorly sold from what I could see, with hundreds of empty seats in the stalls alone.
Really hope we don’t have to much of this cancelling events as a way of forcing us to show “respect” though. It doesn’t play well with a lot of people.
Hall not full, but yet 70% of a very tearful audience there when the Queen had only just died on a very, very wet night. Spme decided not to stay when announced it was cancelled. I was there to see the numbers, and especially travelled 200 miles to be there for both concerts, including the Price, so your stats are very inaccurate.
It was our Queen of 70 years that died on a day not of her choosing. You should have some respect yourself, if only for our British culture.
I was there too. I think you must have had tears in your eyes if you missed all the empty seats but I didn’t.
If this is culture then we have a problem.
Another irony is that if you have booked a ticket for an event at the RAH months ahead and then find you can’t go for reasons that might be important to you you will not be able to cancel your booking or return your ticket. Their cancellation rules show no respect for the customer in other words.
That is for every British theatre. .
Incorrect. At the Southbank Centre, Barbican, Royal Opera House, Wigmore Hall, National Theatre for example you can return tickets for credit or resale (if the event is sold out). You loose everything at RAH. It’s not publicly funded so they can do what they like but they won’t get any donations from me while they have these policies.
At least the BBC is showing respect to our monarch. There will be plenty of opportunities to make music in the future.
Exactly!
Another idiotic decision and a slap in the face of the distinguished orchestra and conductor. If invited back in coming years they should turn the invitation down.
Not the first time the Philadelphia Orchestra has had a Proms concert cancelled.
Very bad decision. The last night of the Proms could have been reshaped as a tribute to the Queen as it was in 2001 after the 9/11 bombings. That was a concert to remember
Strange times. Earlier today I played CD Choral Music of David Willcocks and found myself in tears in response to the national anthem as the final track.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was the last surviving Dedicatee of an Elgar work, ‘The Nursery Suite’ (recorded in her presence along with her sister Margaret and their parents, the King and Queen, in June 1931, with the composer conducting, at Kingsway Hall).
Surely it would have been more appropriate to play a movement from the work actually written for her? Nimrod has absolutely nothing to do with death and mourning and was actually written by the composer as a mark of friendship to A.J.Jaeger. I have never understood why so many people appear to associate Nimrod with death and mourning? If it is simply because it is an extremely moving musical utterance then why not go the whole hog and play the slow movement of either of Elgar’s great Symphonies on solemn and sad ocassions?
Like the Philadelphia O goes tour with the work in their folders. Geez.
I don’t think the last night should have been cancelled .It should have been held as a celebration of her life . I would like to think that she wouldn’t have wanted everything to stop. Yes the country is in mourning but life has to continue the cost of canceling so many things is not what she would have wanted