Tinkling beneath the final tumult of the nine-week BBC Proms marathon was another sound: that of broken records. Bigger, deeper, wider – the 2010 season has been exceptional and a few crunched numbers make the point. They reflect a season in which the schedulers' sudoku-like thematic games have never – OK, rarely – impeded strong programme making. They confirm, too, the long-held belief of Proms controller Roger Wright that in harsh times concerts offer pleasure at bargain prices.
In the eloquent words of a BBC spokeswoman, it's been a stonking year. Proms attendance is up 5%, with 313,000 tickets sold for 89 concerts at the Royal Albert and Cadogan Halls (compared with 297,500 last year for 95 concerts). An impressive 92% average attendance has been achieved for the main evening Proms in 2010 (compared with 87% last year). BBC Four has triumphed, too, with viewing figures up 46%.
We all welcome the rise in under-16s attending, but are more wary about an apparent increase in under-sixes. There has been some notable bawl-by-bawl commentary, usually in something palpably unsuitable like hushed Ligeti. I have tried, tested and found severely wanting the theory that young children will listen to anything. This is wishful, middle-class poppycock. Those who led out their toddlers mid-piece may, reluctantly, now agree.
Among the concerts which sold out first were two by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle last weekend. In part, it's the magnificence of the orchestra, in part Rattle, whose limited appearances in the UK ensure him even more of a hero's welcome than usual. "Isn't it a bit gross, this fan devotion? What's new about Rattle?" a sceptical friend asked as the Prommers slow thudded their feet on the floor, an arcane but ultimate sign of enthusiasm.
That's tricky. World premieres aside, new in classical music doesn't mean the same as in any other art form. The canon, embracing 1,000 years but with the focus squeezed on the 18th and 19th centuries, ensures good box office. Once you have experimented with obvious diversion – a new edition of the score, period instruments or modern – how do you make Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, for the umpteenth time, sound fresh? All you can do is honour the composer.
This is what Rattle does. He may not always succeed but no one can accuse him, as a few seen-it-all yawners try, of playing safe. Who else would dare fill half a Prom (Prom 66) last Saturday evening with music by second Viennese school bogeymen? Yet Rattle took the risk of linking, without pause, Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces, Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra and Berg's Three Orchestral Pieces together (these composers, with their dry-as-a-bone titles, could have benefited from a bit of media training). It worked superbly. Bizarre to think this music, written 100 years ago, still causes sour-lemon gritting of teeth. Yet it glistens and sparkles on its own singular, often voluptuous terms. In Berg's case, the dark catastrophe of the first world war haunts the Three Orchestral Pieces, revised in 1914.
Earlier, Karita Mattila was soloist in Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs which sound older but were written in 1948. The Finnish soprano, towering over all in a striking purple sheath dress, gave an attractively unshowy performance, integrating her voice with the orchestral textures rather than egocentrically standing apart. This took some getting used to but by the final "Im Abendrot" [At Sunset], a perfect balance of emotion and rigour was at play. This song, finest of the four, muses on mortality: as the sky grows dark, two larks "soar wistfully in the haze". Both conductor and soloist were awash by the time the applause burst forth. Rattle is far from his own golden sunset, but he is at an awkward age, career-wise. His hair has turned white, but his eyes still flash with zeal and the grand old man years are decades away. Since the early 1970s, when he was still a prodigiously gifted Liverpool teenager, the praise has been almost unstinting. Success on this scale is always barbed. You can see the malicious tripwires being laid at every turn and he negotiates them all with good grace.
This needs to be said. He is in charge of the top orchestra in the world. His predecessor, Herbert von Karajan, identified the secret of a great orchestra as its ability to move like a flock of birds, according to its own internal radar. Where does that leave the conductor? As cox or helmsman, not as whip. If you wonder whether this is the case, watch how the Berlin players sway and tilt with a joyful freedom which cannot be learned.
Some complain that Rattle over- rehearses, reducing spontaneity into mannerism. This is surely disingenuous. Mahler's First Symphony, paired in Prom 65 last Friday evening with Beethoven's Fourth, lasts nearly an hour and requires an enormous orchestra navigating technical difficulties at full tilt. No amount of rehearsal can make a performance "safe". If it doesn't work, we need to look for other reasons: choice of tempo, dynamics or perhaps – speaking rashly in this Mahler-fest anniversary-mad year – in the music itself, especially in the exciting but brassily gaudy final minutes. The Berlin Phil showed miraculous prowess, but glorious moments made more impact than the grandeur of the whole. A few of us, barely two dozen, heard the same concert a fortnight ago at the Odeon Covent Garden live from Berlin, the first in the orchestra's digital concert hall scheme. The chance to watch the musicians close up added immediacy, especially in the Mahler, which had more urgency than in the Albert Hall. Berlin's next live relay, which will surely be better advertised, is scheduled for today: www.digitalconcerthall.com/.
One last statistic. This year, the overall number of Prommers – the number of those standing for a mere £5, in the gallery or arena – has increased by 14% to 86,200. It takes stamina to turn up night after night and stand stock still, withstanding heat, exhaustion or occasional boredom. I've had my moans about audience behaviour, but the arena crowd are always impeccable. It's the expensive seats that need schooling. My aisle for one was full of noises.
