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 [log in to unmask]