# Tonight: Holst's Planets (among others) at the Royal Albert Hall



## Marco01

I cannot wait! It will be the first time I am going to a performance of the planets and I'm sure it will be fantastic. 

Performed by the BBC Philharmonic, they will also be playing Elgar's Overture 'Cockainge' and Delius' The Song of the High Hills.

For those of you who can't make it, if you can get BBC, you can catch the entire performance tonight on BBC4 from about 7:30pm (or, it might be BBC3, can't remember).


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## maestro267

It's BBC2. 

One...Thunderbirds are go!


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## Marco01

maestro267 said:


> It's BBC2.
> 
> One...Thunderbirds are go!


Ahh, good, good. Last night's performance of 'La Mer' was on BBC4 ... but The Planets certainly deserve to be on a less obscure channel


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## Frasier

I didn't get to this concert but wish I had for the Delius which was remarkably well conducted. However, I don't know if the BBC (televised broadcast) is trying to take a leaf from pop-radio's book but the amount of compression in the broadcast was almost unbearable. We're getting back to what was once confined to LPs and pop drizzle: standard recording mezzoforte.

The loud bits were quietened and the quiet bits were raised in volume. Listening to the sound through a respectable system made the experience quite uncomfortable. I know that BBC's DAB and MP3 quality is coming under fire so why make it worse with unaccepable compression?

It isn't as if they've no experience of the proms and had to rely on limiters and compressors.


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## maestro267

Great concert. I thought I knew the Planets fairly well, but I'd never heard that organ flourish at the climax of Uranus until last night.


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## Marco01

maestro267 said:


> Great concert. I thought I knew the Planets fairly well, but I'd never heard that organ flourish at the climax of Uranus until last night.


I was sat in the choir section, directly above the orchestra, and only three seats away from the organ. Let me tell you, when that organ sounded I could feel the vibration through every inch of my body! It was powerful indeed.

I thought all performances were fantastic. I'm a big fan of Cockaigne, and they certainly pulled this one of with a swagger. Song of the high hills was stunningly beautiful, and Planets ... well, simply amazing. I had a fantastic evening. There's nothing quite like live music.


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