by David Wilmott

Welcome to the Proms

Like the arrival of the swallow, one of the signs that summer is on the way is the publication of the programme for the forthcoming season of the Promenade Concerts, details of which are eagerly awaited both in this country and abroad.

For nine weeks, between the 14th July and 14th September thousands of music lovers will descend on London's Royal Albert Hall to enjoy this international music festival featuring some of the world's greatest orchestras, conductors, and soloists. With the BBC broadcasting all 73 Proms on Radio 3, many of them on television, plus the live relay of Proms in the Park, the total audience for each concert must run into many millions.

The great pity is, that for the uninitiated, their impression of the Proms is of what they see on the Last Night, an exuberant, noisy, flag-waving throng, blowing on horns, singing Land of Hope and Glory and bobbing up and down to the music. In fact, the reverse is true. For most of the season, the regular "promenaders" are informed receptive audience, been to hear a wide range of music for a very modest price. Renowned orchestral conductors have praised the prom audience for being "the most appreciative in the world" and that during the performance you could almost hear a pin drop.

It was in 1895 that the impresario Robert Newman, manager and lessee of The Queens Hall, had the idea of mounting popular concerts to introduce a wider audience to classical and modern music, in a friendly unstuffy manner. They could smoke if they wished, and during the performance could wander around or "promenade". The permanent conductor of The Queens Hall Orchestra was the young Henry Wood who quickly fell in with Newman's plan.

The concerts of that early era were quite different from those we know today. There was just one orchestra, the Queens Hall Orchestra, and just one conductor, Henry J. Wood. There were no long orchestral works, but short "novelty" items, solo instrumentalists, and a number of singers, often accompanied at the piano. The Proms flourished, and classical nights were introduced. Wood himself contributed a work to the Proms repertoire in October 1905, his New Fantasia for Orchestra on British Sea Songs which continues to be a popular item on the Last Night. The Proms survived the Great War, but by 1927, audiences were declining, and following the death of their founder Robert Newman, were in danger of folding.

Henry Wood was determined that the Proms should continue. He had many friends in the newly emerging BBC, with the result that the Proms were broadcast and received financial backing from the BBC. So began the long and successful relationship between the Proms and the BBC.

The end of an era came in 1941 when the Queens hall received a direct hit during an air raid and was almost completely destroyed. There is a poignant photograph in the archives of Wood surveying the damage in what had been the home of the Proms.

That wasn't the end of the Proms. The following season the Royal Albert Hall was booked for the Proms. The seats were removed from the Arena, and a fountain played in the centre. The tradition of "promenading" was maintained, and the prommers could choose between the Arena and the Gallery.

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