First night of the Proms

The BBC was obviously trying to reach out to a new audience with its coverage of the first performance of its Proms season tonight. Firstly, there was a whole hour of it on BBC1, which even delayed EastEnders when it over-ran. Secondly, the coverage itself catered subtley for those who aren't familiar with 'concert music', with captions explaining what was going on in the music. The captions weren't condescending at all though; they just described what was happening in each part of each piece, using the proper terminology in a way that allowed you (me) to decipher it from its context. The performances I saw were good, especially the leader of the Mendelssohn violin concerto who was really energetic, reasonably good looking and covered in sweat by the end.

Whether anyone actually watched it I don't know. But the captions seemed to me like a good way of adding a new visual element to the programme and of helping the uninitiated, like me, to understand the music. I'll have to try and watch out for Points of View to see how many purists it annoyed.

Naxos

I'm about to prove my own shallowness here, but there's something really off-putting about those Naxos CDs that only cost a fiver. I can't help but think they must be inferior performances and therefore not worth buying - despite the fact that I know I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Also, the sleeve designs are pretty drab. Which is important.

I have actually got a Naxos recording - Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus, which I copied from the library's CDs and have been listening to while writing my dissertation. It's perfectly decent and in fact, a lot of those Radio 3 folks I mentioned in the last post specifically recommended Naxos stuff. They gave cheapness as the main reason, but if it's good enough for them I'm sure it's good enough for me.

I just want to know how they produce the stuff so cheaply. And I bet they would sell more if they put the price up a few quid. Despite my own arguments in their favour, I still don't feel like buying any.