Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Proms

Well another simply wonderful concert from the Proms celebrating great musicals. Last year John Wilson and his orchestra gave us music from MGM and he had to reconstruct all the scores himself as most of them had been lost in a fire at the studios.  This year he turned his attention to Rodgers & Hammerstein and had no problem at all with the music as it is very much available.  

I listened to the Prom when it was broadcast on the radio last weekend and I was very glad my neighbours were on holiday as I spent the entire two hours singing along with all this glorious music.  I remember being taken as a child to see Carousel in Cinemascope, very much a new thing then and the combination of the wide screen and the sweeping tune of the Carousel waltz was simply thrilling.  And has there ever been a more glorious opening to a musical than Oh What a Beautiful Morning?  Such a simple title, such a simple premise but it makes the heart lift.

Of course the selection, wonderful though it was, left out some of my favourite songs but it would have been difficult to fit them all in but I do wish we had had Younger than Springtime from South Pacific, The Farmer and the Cowhand should be friends from Oklahoma and a bit more from the King and I, but what we got was simply gorgeous.  It is clear when watching the members of the orchestra play just how much they are enjoying it all and wshat a ball they were having, particularly it seems to me the brass section.

Kim Cresswell, who also featured in the MGM musicals concert last year (now out on DVD - hooray) was back as was Julian Ovenden fresh from his success in the Sondheim concert which I have raved about already.  His My Boy Bill from Carousal, which surely has to be one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's's most moving songs, really brought the house down.

Excerpts from Flower Drum Song I could have done without as I have never taken to this musical which is one of their lesser known compositions but I suppose all of them had to be covered.  It came out in the early sixties and I gather was totally overshadowed by West Side Story which hit the town at the same time.

There had to be an encore of course and back to the final rousing Oklahoma title song. This is up on You Tube so here is the link. Do have a look and get a flavour of the evening.  My only beef about this concert was the camera work, too much cutting away for my liking but a small price to pay for having the privilege of listening to this music.   Hope they do this every year - I tried to get tickets for this particular concert but they were sold out I gather in fifteen minutes. Now let's hope the BBC issue this one on DVD as well....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTnDedy-FVs

Comments

[Sheila Beaumont]

I followed the link to YouTube, and guess what I got: a message telling me, "! This video contains content from bbc, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds." This is the first time I've come across that sort of thing on the Web! I hope it will at least eventually be on the radio here. I doubt we'll ever get it on television.

[Jo]

It was a fab concert - I really enjoyed it. So was the Sondheim one.

Only recently started getting into the Proms a bit more.