Bob Draper:

>I believe that Davis is a very competant conductor.

So, in general, do I. But I felt in advance of the concert that he might
not be well suited to Bruckner. Don't believe I've ever heard him do any
Bruckner before.

>Do you think that the problem might be that during the year he has to
>prepare for and perform so many varied works that he is just trying to
>do the impossible?

Perfectly possible - although there was no sign of under-preparation of
the MacMillan piece.

During that horrendous first movement of Bruckner 7 I considered several
possible explanations:

He's ill - but he was OK in the first half.

He's just had some bad news during the interval and he can't get his mind
on the job - possible, but no evidence.

He's just had a blazing row with the orchestra during the interval and
they're determined not to perform for him - possible, but an unlikely slur
on the professionalism of the orchestra in front of a paying audience.

>I think that in these days of so much varied repertoire available on
>CDs the proms is beginning to look a little tired.  A bit like some
>anacronistic remnant of the British Empire.

With the exception of the Last Night - where very few people are daft
enough to take the jingoism seriously - I find it hard to agree with that.
I think I'll have to ask Bob to go through this year's Proms programme and
justify that comment.

Tonight's concert - Simon Rattle and the VPO doing Mahler 2 - was more than
good enough to wipe out all the bad memories.  I've never heard a better
M2, and I doubt I ever will.

Ian Crisp
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