It was an astonishing sight, an undulating sea of colour - mainly Union Jacks but also Stars and Stripes and various European flags; funny hats, posters, weird wigs and inflated animals all floating above the heads of the packed arena - a scene more likely to be found at a cup final in a football stadium than at a concert of classical music. But this was the last night of the 109th Promenade season at London's Royal Albert Hall, the world's most watched and listened-to concert, a night that celebrates the culmination of the greatest summer season of classical music on Earth.
A loud wolf whistle from a male admirer greeted beautiful Romanian opera diva Angela Gheorghiu as she prepared to sing an aria from Bizet's Carmen. She couldn't help breaking into a huge smile and the audience responded by breaking into delighted laughter. During his closing speech conductor Leonard Slatkin suddenly had a large inflated whale thrust into his arms by a cheeky front-line Promenader - the beaming conductor hugged it as he continued his speech. These were just some of the high jinks that were part of this end of school year party. And there was lots of good music too. The evening began with the BBC Symphony Orchestra giving an effervescent rendition of Berlioz's, Roman Carnival. Twenty-five-year-old American violinist Leila Josefowicz later held the audience spellbound with a dreamy performance of Massenet's Meditation before displaying stupendous virtuosity in Saint-Saens's, Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso. New music is an important part of the Proms and Lumina by the young British composer Joseph Phibbs was given its world premiere - unfortunately the rather sombre, abstract piece seemed out of kilter with the jolly mood of the evening.
The second half buzzed into life with a stinging performance of Vaughan Williams' The Wasps, and soon we were in the musical heartland of the last night with Elgar's Pomp And Circumstance March No 1, all 5,000 members of the audience joining in to sing Land Of Hope And Glory. American conductor Slatkin had created a bit of a fuss in the media by saying that some songs sung on the last night of the Proms were too bombastic. But there was no holding back in the hall as his baton thrashed and the orchestra went full throttle in tandem with the lusty singing of the audience.
The sea of waving flags danced merrily to the jaunty Fantasia On British Sea Songs arranged by the Proms founder, Henry Wood, and Australian composer Percy Grainger. This was followed by the mighty lyrics of William Blake's Jerusalem, again sung by the entire audience. The patriotic mood now in full flow the British national anthem was sung, although there was a lot of lip synching when it came to the second verse which few people know - fortunately the BBC singers, scores in hand, sung us through to the conclusion. After the Auld Lang Syne the rest was silence - although a summer of superb music will play on in our hearts.