BBC Proms bounce back to peak performance
OrchestrasThe BBC has just announced an average 96 percent ticket sale for Royal Albert Hall evening concerts in the Proms season just ended.
That’s up from 93 percent last year.
One-third of attenders are said to be first-timers.
Other stats:
Proms 2024 season has reached over 10.6 million people on TV so far
4.6 million streams of BBC Proms 2024 content on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds
A peak audience of 3.3 million people watched the Last Night of the Proms on BBC One
During the final week of the BBC Proms season, Radio 3 had 264K Sounds accounts, up more than 10% on its previous record, and up by over 20% compared to the final week of Proms 2023
Almost 300K enjoyed the Proms live at the Royal Albert Hall, and a further 14K at concerts across the UK
Over two thirds of Proms at the Royal Albert Hall have been total sell-outs.
May the Powers That Be pay attention: people DO want to see classical music on TV.
On TV AND live in Albert Hall! What unalloyed good news, especially after the usual carping about programming before the season.
I don’t think that can be right, as if they did then the BBC would surely show a lot more of it. I mean, stands to reason, doesn’t it?
Delighted at the Proms success and agree totally with V.Lind’s comment about television. But I do think we have to remember that watching classical music on regular television programming is not the same as watching even a Prom concert on TV. Perhaps one big TV success was the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition – although more perhaps for the presence of Yunchan Lim than the orchestra. But I do suggest that regular symphonic concerts require something more than just astute video direction to keep ordinary enthusiasts watching.
I remember back to the days when Andre Previn and the LSO appeared in at least one series of the BBC’s ‘Andre Previn’s Music Night.’ Apart from introducing some great soloists – the only time I saw the piano virtuoso Earl Wild in the UK – what marked the difference were large screens spread across the back of the orchestra with what is probably best called ‘sensitive mood lighting’. No doubt this will turn a lot of afficionados off, but at the time I thought the addition of a simple visual stimulus worked extremely well.
I do stress ‘sensitive’ and do not mean anything similar to the series with Simon Callow visiting ‘Classical Destinations’ as this would detract far too much from the music being performed.
What encourages me is the number of first-timers. Yes, this music is for you!
Maybe all those trailers every ten minutes on R3 have paid off!
Good news though – I only caught a few but enjoyed the ones I did hear.
When I lived down that way I loved popping in randomly – the audiences were always diverse.
The only things I don’t like are the people who clap and cheer the moment the last note has played
This is good news! I guess that “Rule Britannia” has some fans after all! Who knew?
I went to four Proms at the Albert Hall this year, including the first night. There was a real buzz in the hall at every concert. Good to see the Proms back to something like full strength. Let’s hope that in future years we see orchestras back from North America and the Far East.
Thank God the last night was not ballsed-up by the woke liberal elite. Angel Blue was an absolute joy!
What astonished me was ghastly Katie Denham dreadful poorly researched, or worse deliberately misleading criticism of Rule Britannia, as “problematic” & “links to colonialism”.
Rule Britannia was inspired by the terrible ordeal suffered by 11 year old Thomas Pellow kidnapped from Cornwall by Barbary Muslim Pirates in 1706. After 23 years of Slavery – torture & forced conversion to Islam, Thomas Pellow escaped back to England. He wrote of his ordeal in a book & was celebrated as a hero. A poem about his Slavery inspired Rule Britannia. Why is the truth not more widely known?
If you don’t understand why Rule Britannia is problematic, read William Dalrymple’s ‘The Anarchy’ about the conquest of India. It’s the history we were not taught at school. It’s not pretty or patriotic.
Which conquest? The one by Britain, or the earlier ones by the Muslim invaders?
So hideously problematic that India joined the British Commonwealth (as it used to be known) in 1947.
Presumably the Spanish, French, Belgian and Ottoman Commonwealths were already oversubscribed?
India isn’t an ocean. The song is about ruling the waves.
Thank you Daniel, for bringing this background story behind ” Rule Britannia” to life. It might restore a sense of balance to the ” woke” arguments…
The worst aspect of the last nigh Proms was only playing a bit of Saint-Saens 5th Piano Concert. That was a travesty a la Classic Fm.
This was by far the worst BBC Proms Season that I have ever had the misfortune of watching.
I think you need to elaborate on a comment like that to make it credible
The good news is that nobody’s forcing you to go and from this story it looks as if there’ll be someone to buy your ticket instead.
As a Londoner, I was fortunate to be able to attend several live proms this year which were great, and all for £8 a time.
But was it my imagination or were far fewer being filmed than usual?
Whilst every prom is broadcast on Radio 3, televised Proms get far wider audiences – fitting with Sir Henry Wood’s ideal of making music accessible.
Isn’t that what BBC Four is there for? It doesn’t have to be hugely expensive – there could be a less sophisticated recording of some concerts with a fixed camera, for example. Unless the major cost is in the rights? But these are supposed to be the “ BBC” Proms so who owns the rights? Or is it broadcast fees due to visiting orchestras and soloists? Doubtless someone can explain these economic mysteries to me.
Ah, but squirrelling them away on BBC Four means only those in the know will take the trouble to watch them, rather than the general public being exposed to them, by accident almost, on BBC One or Two. Promos on R3 only ‘preach to the converted’. Didn’t hear one on R4, and I doubt if there’d be any on R1 or 2 (except perhaps for Florence and Sam Smith). Yet we are bombarded on BBC 1 and 2 with promos for R1, R2. Plus, the promos for the Proms only really started (and rarely) on BBC 1 and 2 once the Olympics were over. Whereas we were overloaded with promos for those, Glastonbury and K-Pop in Korea, “Strictly”, and “Celebrity this, that and the other”, etc well in advance and during their duration. I’d also be interested to know how many of the ‘first-timers’ only went to the Florence and Smith proms.
The BBC proms pay minimal performance fees, and paltry amounts for broadcast rights. For some foreign soloists it is a loss making activity. Pretty insulting when one considers what UK orchestras demand when on tour overseas.
Not sure about fewer but some odd choices and none of the big visiting orchestras. I assume that’s probably related to fees and contracts involved but I don’t know for sure.
I also noticed that some, such as Barenboim’s Prom, were also listed as being on TV initially and droppped from nearer the date.
They didn’t film/record the Anne Sophie Mutter prom so another travesty. Sam Smith instead!
Congratulations to the Proms organisers! It was a good season and was well-presented on radio and television. And while the media went through the usual chest-beating about the words and music of the Last Night, I thought the tone of the concert and the TV presentation conveyed the fun and inclusive nature of the concert very well. Katie Derham, Nicky Spence and Chris Addison were enthusiastic and fun hosts, and even Sakari Oramo had a sense of fun. Angel Blue and Stephen Hough were the icing on the cake.
(A shout out, too, to Katya Adler – last year and this year she presented Proms for the TV with knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm!)
I disagree about the Presenters.
Derham could do with a slap to wipe that smug fixed smile off her face, and what the other two muppets were saying was just unintelligent guff.. (sorry, who were they?)
As for the conductor’s speech, he should never had been allowed to do it – a hopeless, embarrassment, clearly not capable of public speaking, unlike the late Andrew Davis, Malcolm Sergeant et al.
Conductors are there to conduct, not try to lower the temperature with poor public speaking..
Bring back Richard Baker please.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the presentation, Bored Muso. I thought Nicky Spence spoke both with authority and good humour, and certainly not unintelligently. Chris Addison was a clear enthusiast, even if what he said didn’t come up to your standards. I find Katie Derham charming and knowledgeable.
Andrew Davis was the Last Night conductor par excellence, and I miss him very much. I was a little sorry that Sakari didn’t mention him in his speech, though it was good to see his picture pinned to the conductor’s rostrum. At a previous Prom, Sakari was very dry and, on this blog, compared to a middle-grade EU bureaucrat. This time, I felt he entered into the spirit of the occasion more.
I’ve been enjoying episodes of Face the Music on YouTube, featuring Joyce Grenfell, Patrick Moore and the ever-charming Richard Baker. They take me back to my childhood which now seems like a different world. Face the Music was the ‘popular’ face of classical music: listening to taped recordings of Radio 3 programmes from the 1970s, the presenters sound as though they can hardly bring themselves to talk down to the audience. Give me Katie Derham any day!
Who IS Nicky Spence??
never heard of him..
Why do they drag in these unknowns to pontificate about the music they know little about?
How was he chosen to appear?
Yes, Katya Adler was the best!
if only they had televised more of the Classical Music rather than what I’ll be kind and call the ‘crossover’ stuff…. With the exception of the War Requiem, the superstar Piano Trio and the B9 it was slim televised pickings for the Classical fan.
If only they had included more Classical music presenters from R3 with some gravitas such as Petroc, Skellers or Sarah Mohr Pietsch … I don’t want to hear from Toksvig or Myrie at the Proms any more than I’d expect to see Martin Handley chairing QI (although arguably it would be an improvement).
if only the stats for the ‘first time listeners’ weren’t inflated by those who tuned in for Disco, Sam Smith, Florence Welch etc …how many of these will be back for classical music next year? I’ll be interested to see the stats for that.
All very frustrating, because there were indeed many very fine Concerts and performances, of which the Gardner/Grosvenor Busoni and the Czech Phil concerts were particular highlights, which could and should have been televised.
Totally agree
Surely the Proms have lost their way? They are no longer classical except for a few.
This has to be the worst programming ever with too many woke box ticking gigs (Disco, Sam Smith, Dr Who, Ultra (not!) Lounge etc, we could have done without – certainly on TV in W1A’s misguided desperate attempts to try to ‘engage with younger audiences of the future’ and the tired old mantra of inclusivity.
Like the hapless church, shamefully staging discos, pop gigs and the like in their failing buildings in a desperate attempt to interest the younger crowd who following a pop gig just might, suddenly be inspired to attend a service, this blatant bribery just ain’t going to work.
This once celebrated Festival of Music worldwide has become an entertaining circus in a misguided desperate attempt to justify the huge cost of mounting such gigs.
Interesting to see the audiences for these pop proms were not under 30’s as hoped, but those sad do-gooders in their 50’s & 60’s trying to relive their youth and looking sad in the process.
bring back Flash Harry!
There is a church in my city where they basically have a rave every week and really draw in crowds!
In any case Greg Sandow’s blog argues that live classical music audiences have really declined because the musical ecosystem is disconnected with the changing world, so you won’t be hearing things like the Schnittke 2 at the Proms anytime soon. I’m not too happy about that either but at least you have the jazz fans to sob and cry with – jazz is even less popular than classical nowadays
It was mostly ‘classical music’. I went to 5, watched 5 and listened to at least 10. 2 were pop for want of a better word but the rest stretched 300 plus years. As for the ‘pop’ audience coming back, the increased attendance suggests some have over the past few years.
You obviously didn’t attend many of the concerts, or don’t you consider Bruckner, Shostakovich, Busoni, Berlioz, Schoenberg classical?
Maybe review the whole programme and listen to a selection. Perhaps next year risk a few £8 tickets and see the audiences before judging.
As others have stated, the TV presentation has been dreadful and prioritised the increasing number of pop concerts in preference to classical music.
This year, only 22 concerts have been broadcast on TV, a much lower number than used to be the case before the pandemic. Of those, only 13 were what most people would recognise as a concert of classical music. The others were either pop concerts, or involved some form of classical/pop crossover.
There have been some fantastic concerts at this year’s proms, but hardly any were included in the TV broadcasts. This season included concerts by the Czech Philharmonic (2), The Berlin Philharmonic (2), the BRSO (2), The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the CBSO, the LPO, Bach Collegium Japan, the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants and many others, but none of these were considered good enough for TV broadcast. Instead the BBC preferred to show Sam Smith, Florence and the Machine and concerts devoted to Disco music and modern movies scores.
On top of this, the presentation by the likes of Clive Myrie, Katie Derham and Sandi Toksvig was dreadful.
Spot on, Jon!!
Completly agree; none of my highlights of the season, such as the visiting orchestras you mention, were on TV.
The presenters are indeed awful, or at least the scripts they are given are. They talk almost entirely about the performers and very little about the music.
And why they don’t display the texts being sung when there’s a vocal or choral piece. With the MacMillan piece in Halle prom very little was said about the text being sung and obviously you couldn’t hear the words.
On the other hand, when you are in the hall the cameras can be a complete menace so I’m happy they are not on TV if I’m going to the concert!
The greatest, and most diverse Music Concert on the planet. Long may it continue!
I’ve often defended the Last Night on the grounds that the jingoism is ironic and arch; that no-one comes out wanting to send gunboats to extend the empire; and that the number of *foreign* flags waved among the audience is a lovely sign that the singing of jingoistic ditties has become focus of international friendship.
In the light of this, I was disturbed by two things this year that suggested someone was wanting to edge the Last Night towards a full-scale demonstration of British nationalism: first, the whopping pair of union jacks (corrections pointing out that they’re flags, not jacks, are not welcome); second, the singing of the UK national anthem–unless my memory serves me amiss (and I have been at the Last Night at least three times), this didn’t use to be part of the programme.
I’ve seen several Last Nights and heard more, and have CDs of a couple. I was also surprised to hear the National Anthem — though not distressed by it. Quite the opposite.
But then I like the whole final section of Last Night — I like hearing British traditional. Out of the whole Proms season, a half hour or so devoted to British tradition — when so many others have been included in the programming, for whatever reasons — is a pretty modest ask.
You should have been paying more attention: the National Anthem has always been sung. The new (recent) addition to the official programme is Auld Lang Syne, which is now accompanied orchestrally.
I like the two “whopping” Union flags – they dress and frame the organ beautifully. And, thank goodness, in a lofty position not yet compromised by the EU FlagMafia!
Window dressing. Rest of the industry is screwed. What will happen now that Pickard is gone?