Gaiety is the Keynote of the Proms.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 788, 27 August 1954, Page 30

Gaiety is the Keynote of the Proms.

J. W.

GOODWIN

describes how the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts began 60 years

ago, and how their Diamond Jubilee is being celebrated this season.

HE young Mr. Henry Wood did not know what he started that Saturday night in August, 1895, when he conducted his first promenade concert. He was an enthusiastic 26, and that night at the Queen’s Hall he was con-

ducting London’s only regular orchestra. He needed to be an enthusiast, and one suspects that at times he had to be a little less than musical while Mr. Iver McKay sang "Dear Heart," Mrs. van der VeernGreen warbled "Loch

Lomond,’ and Mr. W. A. Peterkin rollicked out "A Soldier’s Song." Whatever might be said by our grandparents, remembering cosy musical evenings among the antimacassars, laté Victorian England was not noted for its musical taste. That first promenade audience apparently enjoyed: © leave me not, dear heart! I did not dream that we should part, I love but thee, O love thou me, And leave me not, dear heart. Before Kipling introduced a little realism and the South African War de-

flated the national jingoism, they revelled in: On _# bayonets bright, in the thick of the We sri to victory, And when the fighting is o’er, we think of our darling’s face once more, And pour out a flagon of wine. . . Glory or death’s our watchword on the field, Fiercest foes and countless n'er shall us yield, No wonder that we’re victors in every fight, wei . for home and beauty we offer our e. It’s easy to feel superior, but they liked it, and it’s just as well, because they asked for more. Concerts, "promenade or balcony one shilling," became a regular summer attraction, still with Henry Wood conducting. Those Sea Shanties If he did not know what he was starting in 1895, he certainly could not foresee the outcome of his musical frolic when he composed his Fantasia of Sea Shanties 10 years later. "The young promenaders enjoyed every minute of it," said Sir Henry Wood in later years. "They stamped their feet and sang as I whipped up the orchestra to a fierce accelerando, leaving them far behind. It was good fun and I enjoyed it as much as they." ;

It has been good fun at the final concert every year since, such rtotous good fun that it was omitted last year because the BBC’s director of musical programmes felt that the promenaders’ performance was becoming a nuisance to the Albert Hall audience and to radio listeners. This musical Canute succeeded in keeping the sea shanties off the air, but that was all. That night the bright lights dimmed under the great glass dome, the "mikes’’ were switched off, the TV cameras trundled away, some of the thousands in the wide sweep of galleries began edging towards the stairs, but the promenaders, the gaily-garbed students jammed into the arena, stood waiting. With a shrug and a knowing wink, Sir Malcolm Sargent turned back to a grinning BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the drums and the waves rolled. The victorious promenaders clapped and stamped and shouted with glee, punched balloons to the arching roof, hurled coloured streamers at the sacred podium, and added their own orchestration with rattles, squeakers and whistles. All-night Queue Many of those who went wild, with appreciation had attended everyone of the 46 concerts they could get into. On

Friday they had started queueing for the last Beethoven night, and after the concert had gone straight back to the queue to stand and drowse and sprawl and chatter for 19 hours until the doors opened for the final night. More than 2000 were turned away. Collectors soon had hats heavy with pennies for bouquets, one for Malcolm and another for Basil-conductors and aftists are known by their Christian names-100 red and white carnations for the orchestra, and £20 to spare for the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund. It will be much the same this year. Weeks before the two months of concerts began, all tickets for the galleries on the fifst and last nights had been allocated by ballot, but for the aptlynamed arena there will be queues every night. "i Comfortably the arena can hold 600, but for the great occasions 1000 pack into its suffocating discomfort. The ambulance men tiptoe pianissimo to the rescue of those who are overcome. Diamond Jubilee Dismiss them as bobby-soxers if you must-and it’s true that the crowd looks much the same at the Wembley speed-_way-but they are not there to hear "Dear Heart." For this diamond jubilee season, five orchestras will play the works of every one of the great composers, 32 works will be played for the first time at the Proms, eight of them for the first time in public. John TIreland’s 75th birthday on August 13 will be celebrated and prom-

enaders are unlikely to forget that the conductor. Basil Cameron is 70 this year. Three New Zealanders are among the noted soloists. Colin Horsley will play the Alan Rawsthorne Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London. Symphony Orchestra, Richard Farrell the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Alan Loveday will play *T'chaikovski’s Violin Concerto in D, Other soloists include Mark Hambourg, Cyril Smith, Solomon, Moiseiwitsch, Dame Myra Hess, Denis Matthews, Moura Lympany, Larry Adler, Leon Goossens, Eileen Joyce, and an equal galaxy of vocalists. The artists include 34 newcomers. None of this will overawe the promenaders, not even when Sir Malcolm Sargent proves his virtuosity by appearing as a solo pianist. Gaiety will be the keynote and the last night will have something of the irreverence of a school break-up. Sir Henry Wood's sea shanties are back in the programme, and the BBC controller of music has expressed "little doubt that the natural exuberance of the occasion will not exceed reasonable bounds." Others are not so certain of anything except that music can be fun and that, however they might have started, the Proms are grand music. And the bobbysoxers could say: "Leave me not, dear heart, but share it, too."