It's a Ball at the Proms

The papers are awash today with the announcement that the BBC Proms will stage a night of Michael Ball's West End songs. Click here to read more of Nigel Reynolds's article in The Daily Telegraph.
I'm sitting on the fence with this one. On one hand, I feel there are so many opportunities for the public to hear and see this type of music, that the Proms should be left alone for, what is now a rare chance, to view 'classical music'.
However, on the other hand, Ball is very good at what he does, and it could be that many people who haven't contemplated going to, or watching, the Proms in the past, may be enticed back to sample more.

Introducing people to orchestral music has also been discussed by various conductors. Eight leading symphony orchestras have suggested that every child should receive a free ticket to a classical music concert as part of their education.
An excellent idea to promote classical music to the next generation.
To read more, and for a list of the orchestras involved, go here.

For those of you who enjoy singing, but are not quite sure of the lyrics, then, as Richard Alleyne reports, 'The answer my friend...is on the internet'.
There are currently many unofficial lyric sites.
I stumbled across one recently that listed the 'Hill/Wiltschinsky Guitar Duo' as one of the artists. On investigating further the site said, 'The artist will not release the lyrics to their songs.'
Come on guys, do your research. They are a classical guitar duo, they don't have any lyrics!
But, if you do want to look into the words for your favourite songs, then Yahoo are to make lyrics available on line for free.

Meanwhile, out at sea, there have been some rather amusing developments in the last of the Robin Hill concerts on the QE2. But the details are sketchy at the moment, so I'll report more on that tomorrow.