The weekend: Days 169 (Friday 11th September), and Saturday, 12th., Last Night of the Proms.

Started Sat, 12th September 19.16 hrs.

It seems that I have a few things to look forward to, both in the near and also the distant future. I have put my faith in the Covid-19 situation being very much improved by the end of 2021, and succumbed to reserving one of my favourite single cabins for the entire QM2 World Voyage 2022. Even on the opening day of bookings, my travel agent assured me that she had to pull some strings high up in the echelons of Cunard Administration to secure for me, one of those lovely cabins with two huge circular picture windows. Earlier that morning, while she was confirming the reservation on my behalf, the phone lines “went down” and seemingly, I had lost the cabin which Lucy, who takes care of my major travel arrangements, had put my name on. But her negotiations with Cunard were successful, thankfully.

For most of that day, I was elated, only wondering, “what had I done?!” late into the evening and through some of the next day. Those misgivings soon evaporated and I am now enjoying the long term pleasure of looking forward to revisiting the Antipodes for a third time by ship.

I enjoyed a quiet day yesterday and tried going for a walk to compliment the gorgeous wanderings of the day before. I donned my walking shoes with the intention of strolling into Buxton to re-activate a dormant bank account. But, the energy just wasn’t there. I felt cold and just didn’t relish the thought of challenging the cool breeze for an hour or two.

I have to, once again, compliment the “Beeb”(British Broadcasting Corporation). Their handling of this year’s Proms season, I thought was exemplary, given the impossible situation created by the pandemic. Apart from the penultimate night, the final two weeks of the season were live performances in front of no audience at the Royal Albert Hall. Were they going to revive the tradition of performing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony on the second to the last night? The list of programmes on the TV confirmed that indeed, the tradition of the 9th Symphony would be revived, albeit with a recording from the archives of the (I think) the 1991 Proms.

I discovered Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as a small boy intrigued with finding foreign radio stations on our pre-war Bush wireless. Just above the “Home Service” (BBC Radio 4 since 1967) on the radio’s “dial”, was a German radio station which over several Friday evenings, broadcast the cycle of Beethoven’s nine Symphonies. This was the first time I, as a small boy, would encounter such wonderful and major music. Inevitably, we got to the 9th Symphony of which I had probably missed much of the performance, having tuned into at the point all four soloists were singing together in the last movement. This morphed into a welter of sound as the conductor steered the chorus and orchestra to the conclusion of “The 9th”, which around 65 years later, still maintains for me, its tremendous impact. I have heard this work both at concerts and on the radio numerous times, but not recently. Choosing to turn off the T.V. last night, and darken the lounge, I tuned into Radio 3 and reminded myself of the childhood thrill of hearing the “Choral” for the first of many times. That pleasure hadn’t diminished, as I recalled discerning different aspects with each subsequent performance.

Last night’s concert ended, the thunderous applause faded, and on came the T.V. There was another virtuoso performance, this time, from a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire who glided his way to the top prize, using just one of four available life-lines. The element of surprise had evaporated with repeated ITV trailers announcing that Donald Fear, a history teacher had indeed become a Millionaire! Nevertheless, it still made for essential viewing, but unlike Beethoven, there’s no need to play this back again.

Saturdays can tend to be a little lonely. However, I still found plenty to keep me occupied, and I did manage a brief walk before settling down to watch the Last Night of the Proms, once again, in an empty Royal Albert Hall. I was very impressed and enjoyed every work in the programme, including a piece commissioned specially. There were outside gatherings at which the concert was relayed, and views of London highlighted numerous buildings illuminated creating what looked like one co-ordinated light show. I have never seen the Royal Albert Hall lit up both inside and outside in such spectacular fashion. Splendid it certainly was, but somewhat eerie as well with no audience. Some days ago, there was a huge fuss, because for this year only, the traditional patriotic songs were going to be “without words”. The “Beeb” gave in, and a socially distanced choir (The BBC Singers) gave a wonderful albeit truncated rendition of Rule Britannia! (three verses). In Sir Malcolm Sargent’s day, I am sure all six verses were performed.

Last, but certainly not least, St. John’s Church, Buxton opens its doors for worship tomorrow. This is going to be vastly different with all the pandemic precautions and restrictions in place. This will be my first time there since January 6th. By the time I had returned from my travels in March, lockdown was already being enforced in the U.K.