The BBC Proms is the world’s largest classical music festival, an eight-week extravaganza of orchestras, conductors and soloists from home and abroad performing daily at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event that caps off the festival, the “Last Night of the Proms,” is a lighter concert featuring popular classics and British patriotic music. The mood is celebratory: the audience joins in the festivities by waving flags and singing along!
The Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s ever-popular “Last Night of the Proms” returned this year with a special event that was bigger and better than ever before! We were promised a “spine-tingling performance that would have our hearts thumping and our spirits soaring,” and everyone on stage delivered on that promise in spades.
Dr Nicholas Milton helmed the show which featured well-known classics including The Dambusters March and Jerusalem, both standards which are a feature of this memorable event. From the moment he walked on to the stage, he had the audience in the palm of his hand, and he was given a rousing welcome.
Dr Milton oozes music and has rhythm in his bones, and last night he entertained the Concourse Concert Hall audience with his unbridled enthusiasm. The full Orchestra and Choir were joined by special guests in a massive concert celebration of beloved symphonic and choral masterworks.
Featured artist for the program was cellist Sarah Kim, who excelled in renditions of the
“Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 and Variations on an Original Theme ‘Enigma’ Op.36: Nimrod.
Another addition to the program were 14 members of Pacific Opera, who delighted us with the beautiful Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams, and also led the audience with several rousing choruses of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Military March No.1 (Land of Hope and Glory.) as an encore, and which brought the evening to a memorable close.
The hundred voice Willoughby Philharmonic Choir received rapturous and well-deserved applause for Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah – a fitting tribute to Choirmaster Peter Ellis.
“We’ve inherited many wonderful traditions from “Mother England”, and the Proms concert is only one of many. And though some of those traditions may be slowly fading away, it’s nice to know that this tradition has endured.
At the launch of the 2017 Season held after the performance, Dr Milton stated that up-coming concerts sell out very quickly, and he strongly suggested that if you want to get in to one or all of them, the best advice is to become a subscriber to avoid disappointment. All details on the Orchestra’s website, or contact them for a brochure.
When Willoughby Council decides to put on a show, believe me, nobody does it better!
Saturday 20 August, 7pm
Sunday 21 August, 2pm