There are two versions of The Proms in the popular imagination — the common (and false) perception is of bow-tied poshos waving Union Jacks while bobbing along to Land Of Hope And Glory.
The less well known, but true, perception is of people seriously passionate about their music. Passionate enough, in fact, to queue up night after night to stand up in wrapped attention in a sweltering summer concert hall.
The Glasshouse captured the true spirit of The BBC Proms when the festival travelled north from the Albert Hall for the first time two years ago. I imagine that’s why the BBC have come back for more since.
When The Proms return to Gateshead later this month, the seats will again be removed from most of the lower level of Hall One, with the audience able to claim tickets on the night and queue up for the best spots on the rail, just like they would in London.
The result is, hopefully, a slightly different kind of audience — or at the very least a slightly different way of listening. It is hard to explain why standing at an orchestral concert changes the experience, but trust me it does.
Partly this is because, stripped of the formality of seat arms, you find yourself chatting much more with the friends and strangers next to you in the gaps between the music. The unique intensity of a Proms audience — an intensity noted by some of the greatest and most travelled conductors and orchestras in the world — seems to grow from there.
I admit I am biased. I spent several student summers spending almost every night at The Proms in London and a lifelong appreciation of music grew from there, as well as lifelong friendships.
My fellow Promenaders included Ken, a warehouseman at John Lewis, and Mark, a delivery bike rider, among an earnest bunch of graduates, shop workers and young professionals including one who rose to become a leading composer in his own right.
Cheap tickets help, of course. In that sense The Glasshouse captures The Proms spirit not just for one weekend each summer but throughout the year with its impressive and progressive offers for young and new audiences. A round of applause for them.
Oh, and the music must be top draw. In 2023 The Royal Northern Sinfonia celebrated the first Proms weekend with a performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony of remarkable joy and electricity.
If that was a hard act to follow last year’s Brahms Second Symphony and collaboration with the pop singer Self Esteem came close.
This year there are seven concerts packed into the last weekend of July with the Sinfonia players working so hard they must be powered by Duracell.
The festival kicks off in the classical mainstream with a Friday night concert including Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with Alena Baeva as soloist followed by Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, which should have anyone who was in Hall One two years ago licking their lips.
The Proms is as much about discovery as familiar classics, and also on the bill is a suite by Germaine Tailleferre, a contemporary of Poulenc and Milhaud in the French Les Six movement — a fact which alone acts as a calling card for delicate and intriguing modernist music.
There is plenty more to discover as the weekend continues — a fusion between the orchestra and soulful vocalist and songwriter Jordan Rakei on Saturday evening then a family Prom stuffed with tunes from fantasy films on Sunday afternoon.
Drop the kids off at that one if you can and slip into Hall Two where violinist Daniel Poro will be leading a small ensemble through an exploration of folklore rooted in the Elizabethan and Baroque but stretching backwards and forwards in time over 1,000 years to include a world premiere by Edmund Finnis.
Add to that late night Proms and free events including young North East performers on the BBC Introducing Stage and this has all the makings of another memorable weekend.
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Some more musical highlights for the summer
Don’t let The Proms entirely distract you from the wonders of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival taking place further up the Tyne from July 25-28.
Pick of the programme for me will be soprano Claire Booth in Schoenberg’s part spoken, part sung solo melodrama Pierrot Lunaire (a performance to be repeated at The Glasshouse in October and soon to be released on disc).
There are also concerts starring works by Farrenc, Fanny Mendelssohn, Brahms and Smetana among others, with the Gould Trio at the heart of everything.
Further afield is Music at Paxton House, a festival at the stately home in the Borders running for the rest of this month. An afternoon concert of works for sextet on Sunday, July 21, catches the eye with the music by Gavin Bryars and Richard Strauss plus a paired-down and concentrated arrangement of Mozart’s much-loved Sinfonia Concertante.
August and September sees a series of Wednesday evening organ recitals in the mighty space of Durham Cathedral. Bathe in gothic glory.
