Thousands celebrate the return of Battle Proms
Battle Proms 2021 at Highclere Castle on Saturday, July 31
IT was good to see Battle Proms back in business after having to cancel last year’s show due to Covid. Back they all came, complete with 193 cannons to fire during the Beethoven Battle Symphony and as part of the performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
This was a scaled-down prom with regard to audience numbers, although saying that there were still 5,000 people present.
It all began, as usual, with the Napoleonic Cavalry display which I saw on the big screen. I couldn’t get close enough to the real thing as it appeared that most of that 5,000 people were just in front of me.
No problem with the Red Devils parachute display team because you only had to look up into the sky to see them floating down, trailing a line of pink vapour behind them. Likewise the Grace Spitfire, which flew over several times after being piped on by Cpl Nirmal Thapa of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
The Battle Proms Belles, Lizzie and Abi
Jaye, crooned their way through a batch of much-loved popular old songs like Over The Rainbow and Straighten Up And Fly Right. When they finished with We’ll Meet Again it was as much to remind us that they’ll be back next year as a nostalgic nod towards the memory of Vera Lynn.
Then the main musical programme began with Elgar’s Pomp And Circumstance and Nimrod from the Enigma Variations, played with spirit and vigour by the New English Concert Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Coombes.
It was followed by Vonne Suppes’ Light Cavalry Overture played with strong brass and light, fluffy strings.
Elgar’s Cello Concerto featured the impressive 16-year-old cello soloist Harry Scott-Burt, who played with great sensitivity, as he did again on The Swan by Saint-Saëns.
Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G minor isa concert favourite here given a rousing, fullblooded reading by the orchestra.
After the interval we heard soprano soloist Denise Leigh singing Je Veux Vivre from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette.
Denise had a wide-ranging voice and could hit the high notes with no sign of strain.
After that it was the build-up and performance of the old favourites, notably that Beethoven Battle of Vittoria , Op 91 and enough gun fire to frighten people in the next county.
Jerusalem, of course, Sailor’s Hornpipe ,oh yes and Rule Britannia, what else? Pomp and Circumstance once again with Denise Leigh as soloist.
A wild explosion of colourful fireworks lit up the sky before we all went home.