Last night of the Christmas Proms - REVIEW

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Great Hall

If the popular perception of the proms comes from its famous last night, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Last Night of the Christmas Proms’ is the wintry equivalent. A traditional end to a year touring a classical repertoire with a good old sing song at the University of Exeter’s Great Hall. 

After a cheery Christmas medley resonant of a West End musical where one knows all the tunes, charismatic conductor Pete Harrison explains he’s back in Exeter for the first time in three years and introduces his white-tied orchestra for a first half more classical than pop, although we’re off and under way with a festive medley, and later an arrangement of Queen’s ‘No One But You/Only The Good Die Young (Brian May, 1997) and tunes from the hit show Wicked. 

Musical actor Jenna Lee-James’ is on and off stage in a collection of outfits, the first more Dame Edna at the disco than classical ball grown, but hey, this is a party. And she’s a perfect accoutrement, with an adaptable style that spans the musicals and the pop song and a microphone technique from which many performers could learn.

Although the Great Hall is the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s home in Devon, as the name of the orchestra suggests, it’s not its world headquarters. Nonethless, rather than premier a new composition in Dorset, Exeter enjoyed the treat of the first public performance of Adam Saunders’ ‘Parade of the Snowmen.’ It’s ballsy and pacey, clearly gives conductor Harrison much enjoyment, and fits into a festive show perfectly.

By the time we’re back from the interval, most of the orchestra have thrown caution to the classical wind and turned out in Christmas garb; we have snowmen cellists, Christmas pudding percussionists and reindeer-antlered woodwinders. The first violin is a conscientious objector, a determined remainer in black tie and should be applauded for standing his ground.

If the first half did venture into some relatively low key tunes – a Nightmare before Christmas being the closest to nightmareish, it’s now full-throttled Christmas crackers, getting underway with It’s a Wonderful Life.

It's not long before we're into full sing-along-a-Christmas-orchestra. If the younger ones struggle with The Christmas Song (Mel Torme, 1945) – “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” they have no trouble – indeed no one has any trouble - with Merry Christmas Everybody (Slade, 1973), Jingle Bells (James Pierpont, 1857) and even Feliz Navidad  (Jose Feliciano, 1970), although the Spanish bits were left to Jenna Lee-Jones.

Every proms’ Last Night has a belter. The festive equivalent of Land of Hope and Glory (Edward Elgar, 1901) here is ‘I wish it could be Christmas Everyday (Roy Wood 1973, in an arrangement by Sutherland), and it goes down a storm.

We don’t quite have an audience of kids from one to 92, but the Christmas song’s indicative range of 91 is broadly right. If the youngest member of the audience is around seven, the older ones are knocking on for their century and everyone seems to know the words. 

It’s a joyful night, and everyone leaves feeling a little more festive and singing a happy song. When the BSO is back in Exeter, it’s going to be a little more serious, but a night of belting our bangers shows that orchestral music can be fun. We’ll all be back.