THIS summer, the roof is lifting off the Royal Albert Hall, the lid bursting open to let the Proms fly out well beyond their South Kensington confines to venues all over the UK. They’re off to Derry, Gateshead, Aberystwyth, Dewsbury, Truro, Perth and Great Yarmouth. Prommers can Prom, standing or sitting on the floor if there’s space, to hear live music of an infinite variety, for the astonishingly reasonable price of £8.
Although the Proms in London attracts audience members in their thousands, and broadcasts on BBC television and Radio 3 mean that you don’t have to miss a single one, wherever you happen to live, it’s a thoroughly welcome development to extend the festival’s reach across the country. Or to keep extending it, in different directions and to different venues.
Hannah Donat is the artistic producer of the Proms, a title that does scant justice to the span of her activities,via the vocal ensemble Stile Antico, which will celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Byrd’s death () in Derry, Northern Ireland (July 15) and pianist Steven Osborne playing Haydn, Shostakovich and Tippett at Perth (September 3), through to the Last Night (September 9), with all its dotty rituals and riotous flag-waving, broadcast on huge outdoor screens around the UK.
