Top sellers were the Doctor Who Proms and, the First Night of the Proms, which indicates that by far the greatest demand came from buyers after spectacular events, rather than classical music per se. As a friend noticed, once the message came through that Dr Who had sold out the queue moved from 10 per minute to 50 per minute. "Maybe they should have a separate queue for Dr Who", he remarked. It might work.
Surprisingly the Wagner Proms weren't swamped. Perhaps there were just too many to choose from, and people can't afford to go to everything. Top seller in the "classical" slot (as opposed to classical augmented by a sense of occasion) were Proms 33 and 35 featuring Maris Janssons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps the programmes were the draw, Beethoven Piano Concerto no 4 with Mitsuko Uchida and Berlioz Symphonie fantastiique, and Mahler's Second Symphony, always a block buster. Perhaps the draw was down to the relative lack of orchestras from outside the UK, which in some ways is a blessing as some visitors have turned out to be a disappointment. Normally, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra would be a surefire hit but playing Bach under Lorin Maazel ? Maybe not.
Perhaps the secret to getting what you want on the First Day of Booking for the BBC Proms is to go for the top sellers. If everyone takes less time getting things sorted, the queues move faster. There's no need at all to book everything in advance. Let common sense prevail!
Similarly tickets from the Enescu Festival 2013 were sold out in 10 minutes on April 15 when they went online & similarly the only remaining were the Ring by Marek Janowski, arguably the cheapest on offer this year with such high quality and a few concerts, mainly by French artists, along with programmes such as Britten's War Requiem. Actually most of the tickets were bought locally in bookstores. Those who sought for and found tickets Neville Marriner, Rudolf Buchbinder and Christian Zacharias were Lucky Lukes.
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