The London Proms in the 1930s

A recollection of the London Proms in 1936:

The behavior of the Promenaders was more genteel in those days … there wasn’t the same degree of shouting as now.  During the famous hornpipe in Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs people tapped with their umbrellas and sticks, rather than stamping.  As the applause went on at the end of the concert, I remember Wood doing his thing of coming on carrying his overcoat and waving his walking stick to show he was going home.

Richard Baker, BBC presenter.  Cited in Green, Andrew. “”One Fateful Night””, BBC Music, September 2010, p.42.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, ,

Featured Content

The musician’s contribution to the world
“As musicians, we are already doing something for the world … We make it more flowing? … Through music”. Pianist Lang Lang Shirley Apthorp, “Piano Man”, The Australian, May 14 2011.
The Poet and the Muse
Poet, you are no liar. The world that you imagine is the real one. The melodies of the harp alone know truth, and in this life they can be our only true guides. Cavafy, “The Poet and the Muse”
The Lord is my Shepherd – Psalm 22 (23)
Title: The Lord is my shepherd Text: Psalm 22 (23)     Related settings:     – I shall live in the house of the Lord (Psalm 22; Greg Smith) – SATB and piano (PDF score) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Just as we checked the tuning …
In 1853, Brahms went on a tour of German cities with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi.  In the town of Celle, they were scheduled to play Beethoven’s Sonata in c minor (op. 30, no. 2): but it was found that the piano in the hall was tuned a half tone too low.  Reményi refused to […]
Liszt’s account of a performance by Chopin
Franz Liszt described one of Chopin’s concerts in the Gazette musicale, May 2 1841. Last Monday, at eight o’clock in the evening, M. Pleyel’s rooms were brilliantly lighted up; numerous carriages brought incessantly to the foot of a staircase covered with carpet and perfumed with flowers the most elegant women, the most fashionable young men, […]
Beethoven as a boy
In his Beethoven: Biography of a Genius, Marek provides an insight into Beethoven as a boy: The boy was looking out of the window, his head cradled in his hands.  His mien was serious, his glance rigid. Cäcilia Fischer came along the courtyard and saw him. “How are you, Ludwig?” she shouted up to him.  […]
Delius on the role of music
“The chief reason for the degeneration of present-day music lies in the fact that people want to get physical sensations from music more than anything else. Emotion is out of date and intellect a bore. Appreciation of art which has been born of profound thought and intensity of experience necessitates an intellectual effort too exhausting […]
The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel – Psalm 79 (80)
Title:The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel Text: Psalm 79 (80): 9, 12-16, 19-20. R. v. 5:7 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Freedom for music
“In order for music to free itself, it will have to pass over to the other side – there where territories tremble, where the structures collapse, where the ethoses get mixed up, where a powerful song of the earth is unleashed, the great ritornelles that transmutes all the airs it carries away and makes return.” […]
Advance Australia Fair (Peter Dodds McCormick)
Title: Advance Australia FairComposer: Peter Dodds McCormickArranger: Greg SmithInstrumentation: SATB and pianoProduct medium: PDF score and part Available from:Sheet Music Direct