My visit to Doctor Who at the Proms (Sunday 25th July)

I have been to a few classical concerts over the last few years –Rachmaninov, Film themes, Tchaikovsky – all were really fantastic, and this concert was no exception. I was one of the lucky 10,000 people to have booked a ticket to see Doctor Who at the Proms. I attended the Sunday performance on the 25th July, and it was also the first time I had personally seen Doctor Who music performed live. And I absolutely loved it.

The ‘Madman with a Box’ intro was inspired, and Yamit Mamo’s vocals were just beautiful, with the added reverb making them sound magical. It was definitely one of my favourite pieces of the concert. Then two fun and lighter pieces followed – ‘An Untimely Arrival’ and John Adams’ ‘Ride in a Fast Machine’, which was an interesting, if rather experimental piece. The highlight for most people I suspect though was Murray Gold’s main theme for Series 5, listed as ‘I am The Doctor’, which was as absolutely magnificent as it was meant to be, and another favourite of mine. I also enjoyed the performance of Holst’s ‘Mars’ from The Planets, which seemed particularly energetic.

Of course, it wasn’t too long before the Monsters came out, first Judoon and Cybermen, followed by an ‘Ironside’ and an all-new Supreme Dalek, and later Silurians and Vampires would fill the hall later on. Even The Doctor himself, appeared in character for a brief spot of audience participation.

Most of the rest of the concert featured more of Murray Gold’s more incidental music such as ‘Battle of the Skies’, ‘Liz, Lizards, Vampires and Vincent’ and ‘The Pandorica Opens’, which although were still good, lacked the epic and melodious nature of his most loved themes. Fortunately, there were more of those to come.

My most favourite piece of the concert though, was ‘Amy’ (Amy’s Theme), which was epic, magical, moving, rousing, and definitely the most powerful piece of music of the day. I just love it to bits. It just seemed to have everything.

There was also an extended flashback to the Russell T. Davies era via a performance of ‘This is Gallifrey’ with an added new arrangement of ‘Vale Decem’ – the 10th Doctor’s Regeneration theme. ‘Vale Decem’ in particular was a spectacular piece to hear live, after it’s impressive appearance in The End of Time, with Mark Chambers once again wowing the audience with his high vocals. The arrangement was also fascinating too, with a powerful organ playing out underneath it’s powerful climax, making the ending feel very Dudley Simpson-esque (Dudley Simpson composed incidental music for Doctor Who between 1964 and 1979).

After an entertaining performance of ‘Song of Freedom’, the best TV theme in the World (the Doctor Who theme of course) was performed brilliantly by the orchestra, although the bass line was sadly lost once more. After such a brilliant, I am in no doubt that Murray Gold must surely be Doctor Who's best ever incidental music composer.

As a side note though, I was disappointed with the reaction to the Doctor Who Proms by outside media, saying that Doctor Who fans were so swept up by Matt Smith and the monsters that they wouldn’t appreciate the genius of the older classical music in the concert, which I find very insulting. I became a big fan of classical music at around the same time that I became a Doctor Who fan (1995), and I’m sure that anyone over the age of 10 who loves Murray Gold’s music will be able to equally appreciate and love the music of other classical composers. Any below that age will of course be more affected by a Cyberman or Matt Smith, because they’re too young to have educated and defined tastes in Music, it should go without saying. Sometimes, I think cynicism should be a sin.

Back to the bright side, overall I had a fantastic day out. I heard some amazing Doctor Who music live, seen Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill on Stage (albeit unfortunately at a great distance), and even had time to look round London afterwards. I even saw glimpses of Doctor Who royalty such as the Peter Davison family, Mark Gatiss, and even accidentally walked in the way of Steven Moffat and son (sorry Steven) (I was embarrassed for over an hour). A day to remember.