Prom 69: RSNO / Roussel & Musgrave / Deneve

Prom 69: Second violin part, originally uploaded by Thoroughly Good.

Second consecutive night I have tickets to the Proms. The pal who'd got the tickets had, inexplicably, scheduled a trip to Bulgaria at the same time. What was he thinking?

So tonight's special treat at the Royal Albert Hall went to me and colleague/pal Lisa who is soon to be leaving the UK to return to the US and who, coiicidentally, has never been to the Royal Albert Hall.

Lisa didn't want a programme so I hung on to it. I followed her lead and resisted the temptation to read up on the first work in the programme - a ballet suite by Roussel, a composer I hadn't heard of before.

The piece was packed full of melodrama. If you like Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice you're bound to warm to this little number. I did. I'd never heard it before.

Thea Musgrave's programmatic work Rainbow was a Proms premiere and quite interesting too. Debussy's La Mer was a bit of a joy too. Yet another work in this year's Proms season I hadn't heard before. Quite how I passed my music exams I don't know.

Also in the programme was Stephen Hough's rendition of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. One smashing effort.