It’s Proms time again. Peter Phillips is struck by the imbalance between singers and players
What with all the talk of cuts, and the Proms being a showcase for the BBC house ensembles, I imagine this year’s season might be a time for each to put their best foot forward. I imagine, in fact, that there must be some talk in rooms that used to be smoke-filled of scrapping one or two of them. In total they are: the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Chorus, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Between them these groups will appear in 37 concerts, which is almost exactly half the total of 76, not counting the Proms Saturday Matinées (add five) or the Proms Chamber Music Series (add eight).
Cheap labour? Well, certainly the cost of staging the Proms would shoot up if these in-house ensembles had to be bought in specially. But that makes it sound as though they are second best, which across the board is not the case. They may not be the Berlin Philharmonic every night but then I don’t suppose the Berlin Philharmonic is, and anyway, costs having been kept down, the BBC can afford to have the Berlin Philharmonic as well (3 and 4 September). Perhaps the clue to having such a big, internationally significant festival is that the modesty of the costs on one half of it means that the other half can be afforded. The danger in most such situations would be that the cheap half would let down the expensive half but, I repeat, this doesn’t happen at the Proms. The foreign orchestras may seem more glamorous, but the hall can be just as full for the BBC orchestras.
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