A Night at the Proms- a night to remember?

On Thursday the 27^th December, just safely out of the mad three days we call Christmas, I found myself seated about 6 feet away from the Timpani of the London Concert Orchestra in the magnificent and underrated Birmingham Symphony Hall. My eyes wondered round the majestic 2,262 seat concert hall, clocking the well renowned features that give this venue its reputation. The colossal acoustic canopy hangs relatively low tonight, a tool that is used here to match the style and feel of the repertoire being provided from one evening to the next.  The concert tonight was none other than the Last Night of the Christmas Proms, a beautifully diverse programme of old English classics, sea shanty’s and vocal compositions to be reckoned with.

With the Timpani just a few feet below me and the rather intimidating but impressive Organ towering above me, I felt a certain confidence about my seat tonight, not to mention it being pretty much in line with the conductors podium. As the Orchestra slowly took their seats and the lights lowered, the now packed out Symphony Hall rippled into applause and that familiar rush crept into my stomach and the conductor made his entrance. This is a rare indulgence.

As if to ease us into a sense of security, the Orchestra began with the well-known Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Waltz’, a lilting and melodic piece of music best known for its use in the popular Disney film. The acoustics of the Hall already prove their worth, being seated so close to the percussion, anyone would expect to be over powered by their rhythms over all else, but this is simply not the case. The music fills the room perfectly giving every section of the Orchestra a chance to shine. As the carefully selected programme continued, the performers energy only seemed to grow but the highlight of the first half had to be the Saint Saens Organ Finale, the instrument was installed in 2001 and designed Kleis Orgelbau, towering at a mere 65 feet above me I could not help but feel belittled as it blasted out the final chords of this beautiful composition by Saint Saens.

A gin and tonic and a few nibbles later, the audience retook their seats to enjoy the promising and patriotic second half. This is the part of the Proms we all look forward to. Time to wave the flags and sing along; a rare privilege when you frequent orchestral performances. So many concerts are bound by traditional etiquette of clapping at the correct moment and restraining your ‘whoops’ until you leave the Hall, but the proms are a tradition all by themselves. By this point I was comfortable with the Orchestra and already sufficiently impressed, but my expectations were blown out of the water with the introduction of Nicholas Ransley, the chosen Tenor for the evening. As he delivered a beautiful rendition of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ I remembered exactly why it was that I made my yearly trip here.

The evening reached its climax with the utterly breath-taking ‘Rule Britannia!’ Not a person was left sitting down and not a voice remained quiet as the piece reached its chorus. Flags were flying and music was filling every curve of the room, it truly was a stunning end to the concert. As the Hall slowly emptied, I was aware of the elated conversations going on all around me, and I was suddenly very aware of the diversity of the audience; from children at the age of 8 to the elderly age of 80 and no particular imbalance of males or females, this really was a concert to reach everyone.

The evening was great, from the beauty of the venue and the talent of the London Concert Orchestra to the shrewdly picked programme and accurate acoustics of the room. I left with the same elated buzz that I entered with. A magical evening that I would recommend to anyone.