Proms go to Peckham … with orchestral manoeuvres in the car park
THE Proms are swapping the grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall for Peckham’s 10-storey concrete car park to stage a special show this year.
There will also be tributes to David Bowie and French composer Pierre Boulez, while host Katie Derham will slip back into her dancing shoes for a Strictly Come Dancing special.
The concerts are venturing out from the Royal Albert Hall to four locations across the capital, including the car park, which was transformed into a home for art shows, a bar and its own orchestra in 2007.
The Multi-Story Orchestra will perform work by composer Steve Reich as part of the Proms on September 3. There are separate concerts planned for Shakespeare’s Globe, the Roundhouse in Camden and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
BBC Proms director David Pickard said: “There are certain bits of the repertoire, pieces of music, that I just thought would be wonderful to be heard in settings that would be exciting and interesting.
“This is an international festival in terms of audiences and a national festival in that everyone in the UK has access to it through broadcast, but it’s also a London festival and I suppose I wanted it to be connected not just with Kensington but elsewhere.” Mr Pickard, who ran Glyndebourne before joining the Proms, said he was excited about the Peckham venue as it has “wonderful” acoustics and “incredible views”.
He said: “It is the exciting next generation of music-making in London and next generation of audiences as well. Certainly when I went there to hear them play the audience was very young and very engaged.”
The Strictly Prom will see Derham team up with professional dancers including Kevin Clifton and his sister Joanne to perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The tribute to Bowie will see his work performed by Berlinbased group stargaze, while Sir Simon Rattle will lead the Berlin Philharmonic to commemorate Boulez, who died days before the singer in January.
Mr Pickard said: “They are both extraordinary musicians in different ways and I thought it would be mad for us not to mark them, so there is a late night for both of them.”
The Last Night of the Proms will be conducted by Sakari Oramo of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
SOME of this summer’s BBC Proms will be held in venues beyond the Royal Albert Hall, making them more accessible to Londoners — and helping to dispel the myth that the Proms aren’t populist. Perhaps the most exciting location is a 10-storey car park in Peckham, which became an arts venue in 2007. Works by US composer Steve Reich will be performed there by a full orchestra. We all love the Albert Hall Proms with their cheerful standing tickets, but this is taking art to the people.