Last Night of the Proms

Having just enjoyed a couple of days in London I am reminded of another visit there in September, when James and I went to see the Pink Floyd exhibition at the V & A. It was only after I had booked tickets for this on 9th September that I realised that it was the same date as the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. It seemed to me that it would be a fun idea also to go to this very famous and traditional evening. However I then found out that all of the tickets had been sold out months previously. The very pleasant lady at the box office suggested to me that I try for “returns” a week or two before the concert, so I made a note in my diary and when the time was right I started phoning the box office daily. There were still no tickets to be had, and with two days to go I had almost given up hope, when suddenly two tickets became available in the choir stalls. I was delighted and booked them straight away.

So off we set for London and it turned out that the Royal Albert Hall is only five minutes walk from the V & A, where we were going to our exhibition - how convenient! Pink Floyd is really James’ taste rather than mine, however I was very happy to go along to the “Their Mortal Remains” exhibition and I really enjoyed it. Before we went in we had time for coffee and a scone sitting outside in the sunshine in the V & A’s charming courtyard area. The exhibition charted the fifty years since the group released their first single, using photos, films, design and art installations. We moved through the exhibition in chronological order, from album to album. It was tremendously popular so was very busy, and there was plenty to see as well as listening to music and commentary on headphones as we went round. In the last room you could lie on the floor to watch and listen to Pink Floyd’s music videos.

We then strolled the short distance to the Royal Albert Hall. We had booked a pre-theatre meal in the Elgar Room so that we would be very handy for the concert, and the food was very good. The setting was tremendous with views of the hall’s dome and nearby buildings from the window, all lit up orange by the late afternoon sun. 

Our seats for the concert were behind the orchestra - I hadn’t had any choice of seats when booking but these turned out to be excellent; we could see over the orchestra to watch the prommers milling about happily, and the conductor was facing us! The soloists were of course facing away from us but it didn’t matter as we could also see them on large screens. The evening was great fun. There was a fantastic celebratory atmosphere as all the famous traditions were carried out, including two prommers putting a wreath on the bust of Sir Henry Wood, and lots of flag-waving with many countries represented. There had been a pro-European demonstration earlier in the day and lots of people were waving EU flags as well as Union Jacks. Of course the best thing of all was the music. One of my favourite parts was Sibelius’ Finlandia Hymn, which is so beautiful. The conductor was Sakari Oramo and he presided over the evening with warmth and humour.

Sir Henry Wood’s “Fantasia on British Sea Songs” was wonderful to hear and to be part of. The prommers pretended to weep during Tom Bowling, we stamped our feet faster and faster during Jack’s the Lad which was also accompanied by horns honking, and sang along to Rule Britannia. The soloist for this was the brilliant Nina Stemme who appeared wearing a Wagnerian helmet which looked magnificent. We finished with Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, Jerusalem, and the National Anthem. All powerful stuff and very moving. It was a truly memorable day.