A sense of ending at the BBC Proms

Simon Rattle is terminating his short term as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra with a Mahler9th at the BBC Proms. Rattle was the first to be granted the title of music director by the LSO. He is leaving them for a better orchestra in Germany. Rattle’s farewell sets the tone for much of this summer’s meagre menu, which has been made public today. There are many endings in the Proms, few beginnings.

Mozart’s deathbed Requiem, Mahler’s tenth symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, Strauss’s Four  Last Songs, underline the morose mood. There is the UK premiere of Kurtag’s opera Endgame. The lights dim at the Last Night of the Proms with Bruch’s sombre version of the Kol Nidrei prayer  and Coleridge Taylor’s Deep River. A sense of fun is seriously lacking.

Should we prescribe librium?

photo: Andrew Davis’s hard night at the Proms,by Chris Christodoulou