The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Founded in 1895, each season currently consists of more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children's events. In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. In the context of classical music festivals, Jiří Bělohlávek has described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".[1]
Prom is short for promenade concert, a term which originally referred to outdoor concerts in London's pleasure gardens, where the audience was free to stroll around while the orchestra was playing. Promming now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery) for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single-concert Promming tickets can be bought, with few exceptions, only on the day of the concert, which can give rise to long queues for well-known artists or works. Proms concert-goers, particularly those who stand, are sometimes described as "Promenaders", but are most commonly referred to as "Prommers". Prommers can buy full- or half-season tickets instead for guaranteed entry (until 20 minutes before the concert is due to start), although not the assurance of a particular standing position. A number of Prommers are particularly keen in their attendance. In 1997, one programme in the BBC documentary series Modern Times covered this dedicated following of enthusiasts.
Contents |
Promenade concerts had existed in London's pleasure gardens since the mid 18th century, but on 10 August 1895 impresario Robert Newman arranged the first series of indoor promenade concerts, in the Queen's Hall in Langham Place. Newman's idea was to encourage an audience for concert hall music who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere. In addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were all allowed. He stated his goal as follows:
I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music.[2]
With financial backing from the otolaryngologist Dr George Cathcart, Newman hired Henry Joseph Wood as the conductor for this series of concerts, called "Mr Robert Newman's Promenade Concerts".[3][4] Wood built the "Queen's Hall Orchestra" as the ensemble devoted to performing the promenade concerts. Although the concerts gained a popular following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902, and the banker Edgar Speyer took over the expense of funding the concerts. In 1914, anti-German feeling forced Speyer out of his post. After Speyer, music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts.[5]
Newman continued to work in the artistic planning of these promenade concerts until his sudden death in November 1926. With time, Wood became the name which was most closely associated with the concerts. As conductor from that first concert, Wood was largely responsible for expanding the repertoire heard in later concerts, such that by the 1920s the concerts had grown from being made up of largely more popular, less demanding works, to presenting music by contemporary composers such as Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Ralph Vaughan Williams. A bronze bust of Wood, belonging to the Royal Academy of Music,[6] is placed in front of the Organ for the whole season. While now known as the BBC Proms, the text on the tickets (along with the headline "BBC Proms" next to the BBC logo), still says "BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts".
In 1927, the BBC – later based at Broadcasting House next to the hall – took over the running of the concerts. When the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) was formed in 1930, it became the main orchestra for the concerts. At this time the season consisted of nights dedicated to particular composers; Mondays were Wagner, Fridays were Beethoven, with other major composers being featured on other days. There were no Sunday performances.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the BBC withdrew its support. The Proms continued though, under private sponsorship, until the Queen's Hall was gutted by an air raid in 1941 (its site is now the St George's Hotel and BBC Henry Wood House). The following year, the Proms moved to their current home, the Royal Albert Hall, and the BBC took over once more. In 1944, however, increased danger to the Royal Albert Hall from bombing meant that the Proms moved again, this time to the Bedford Corn Exchange. This venue had been the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1941 and played host to the Proms until the end of the war. After the war, other orchestras were invited to perform in the Proms, such that the BBC SO was no longer the sole orchestra responsible for all Proms concerts.
Wood continued his work with the Proms until his death in 1944. In the years after the war, Sir Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron took on principal conducting duties for the Proms until the advent of Malcolm Sargent as Proms chief conductor in 1947. Sargent held this post until 1966. He was noted for his immaculate appearance (evening dress, carnation) and his witty addresses where he good-naturedly chided the noisy Prommers. Sir Malcolm championed choral music and classical and British composers, especially Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The charity founded in his name, CLIC Sargent, continues to hold a special Promenade Concert each year shortly after the main season ends. CLIC Sargent, the Musicians' Benevolent Fund and further musical charities (chosen each year) also benefit from thousands of pounds in donations from Prommers after most concerts. When asking for donations, Prommers from the Arena regularly announce to the audience the running donations total at concert intervals through the season, or before the concert when there is no interval.
After Wood's death, Julian Herbage acted as de facto principal administrator of The Proms for a number of years, as a freelance employee after his retirement from the BBC, with assistance from such staff as Edward Clark and Kenneth Wright.[7] During the tenure of William Glock as Controller of the Proms, beginning in 1959, the Proms repertory expanded both forwards in time, to encompass then contemporary and avant-garde composers such as Boulez, Berio, Carter, Dallapiccola, Peter Maxwell Davies, Gerhard, Henze, Ligeti, Lutosławski, Lutyens, Maw, Messiaen, Nono, Stockhausen, and Tippett, as well as backwards to include music by past composers such as Purcell, Cavalli, Monteverdi, Byrd, Palestrina, Dufay, Dunstaple and Machaut, as well as less-often performed works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Joseph Haydn.[8] From the 1960s, the number of guest orchestras at the Proms also began to increase, with the first major international conductors (Leopold Stokowski, Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini) performing in 1963, and the first foreign orchestra, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing in 1966. Since that time, almost every major international orchestra, conductor and soloist has performed at the Proms. In 1970, Soft Machine's appearance led to press attention and comment as the first "pop" band to perform there.
The Proms continue today, and still present newly commissioned music alongside pieces more central to the repertoire and early music. Innovations continue, with pre-Prom talks, lunchtime chamber concerts, children's Proms, Proms in the Park either appearing, or being featured more heavily over the past few years. In the UK, all concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3, an increasing number are televised on BBC Four with some also shown on BBC One and BBC Two. The theme tune played at the beginning of each programme broadcast on television is an extract from the end of the "Red" movement of Arthur Bliss's A Colour Symphony. It is also possible to hear the concerts live from the BBC Proms website. The Last Night is also broadcast in many countries around the world.
In 1996, a related series of eight lunchtime chamber concerts was started, taking place on Mondays during the Proms season. In their first year these were held in the Britten Hall of the Royal College of Music (just across Prince Consort Road from the Albert Hall). The following year they moved slightly further afield, to the Henry Cole Lecture Theatre at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2005 they moved further again, to the new Cadogan Hall, just off London's Sloane Square. These allow the Proms to include music which is not suitable for the vast spaces of the Albert Hall.
From 1998 to 2007, the Blue Peter Prom, in partnership with long-running BBC television programme Blue Peter, was an annual fixture.[9] Aimed at children and families, the Prom is informal, including audience participation, jokes, and popular classics.[10] High demand for tickets – which are among the lowest priced in the season – saw this Prom be split in 2004 into two Proms with identical content.[11] In 2008, the Blue Peter Prom was replaced with a Doctor Who Prom.[12]
The 2004 season also featured the Hall's newly rebuilt pipe organ. It took two years to complete the task (2002–2004) and was the work of Noel Mander, Ltd., of London. It was the first complete restoration of the instrument since Harrison and Harrison's work in 1936.
The tradition of Promming remains an important aspect of the festival, with over 1000 standing places available for each concert, either in the central arena (rather like the groundlings in the pit at Shakespeare's Globe) or high in the hall's gallery. Promming tickets cost the same for all concerts (£5 as of 2010), providing a considerably cheaper option for the more popular events. Since the tickets cannot be bought in advance (although there are season tickets and weekend passes available), they provide a way of getting in to otherwise sold-out concerts.[13][14]
In 2010, the Proms Archive was introduced on the BBC Proms webpage, to allow for systematic searching of all works that have been performed, and all artists who have appeared, at The Proms over its history. On 1 September 2011 a Prom given by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was severely affected by interruptions from pro-Palestinian protesters.[15] While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had urged a boycott, they denied being behind the disruption inside the Royal Albert Hall. For the first time ever, the BBC took a Prom concert off the air.[16]
The 2006 season (the 112th) marked the 250th birthday celebrations of Mozart and the centenary of Shostakovich's birth. New initiatives included four Saturday matinee concerts at the Cadogan Hall and the chance for audience members to get involved with The Voice, a collaborative piece performed in two Proms on 29 July. On 3 September 2006, a concert was cancelled due to a fire.[17] The season saw the launch of a venture called the Proms Family Orchestra in which children and their extended families can make music with BBC musicians.[18]
The 2007 season ran from 13 July–8 September 2007, with the first concert beginning with Walton's Portsmouth Point and included Elgar's Cello Concerto performed by Paul Watkins and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Following the previous year's Voice day, brass instruments were specially featured with two concerts on 28 July 2007. Early press coverage focused heavily on the fact that musical theatre star Michael Ball would be the central performer in a concert on 27 August and a concert of British film music on 14 July. This led to media accusations of "dumbing down", despite Nicholas Kenyon's defence of the programme.[19][20][21] Anniversaries marked in this Proms season included the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar, the 100th anniversary of the death of Edvard Grieg and the 50th anniversary of the death of Jean Sibelius as well as marking 80 years since the first BBC sponsorship of the Proms. The series also included an additional series of four Saturday matinee concerts at Cadogan Hall.
The 2007 season was Nicholas Kenyon's last season as controller of the BBC Proms, before he became Managing Director at the Barbican Centre from October 2007.[22] Roger Wright became controller of the Proms in October 2007, whilst retaining responsibility for BBC Radio 3 and taking up a broader role controlling the BBC's classical music output across all media.[23]
The 2008 season ran from 18 July to 13 September 2008. The BBC released details of the season slightly earlier than usual, on 9 April 2008.[24] Composers whose anniversaries were marked include:
The celebration of Stockhausen was centred on two large-scale concerts on 2 August 2008, and complementing Vaughan Williams's interest in folk music, the first Sunday was given over to a celebration of various aspects of British folk, including free events in Kensington Gardens and the Albert Hall, and ending with the first-ever céilidh in the Albert Hall itself.[25]
Other changes included additional pre-Prom talks and events. For the first time, there was a related talk or event before every Prom, held in the Royal College of Music. The popular family-oriented Prom this year became the Doctor Who Prom, (in place of the Blue Peter Prom of recent years).[26] The Doctor Who Prom included a mini-episode of Doctor Who, "Music of the Spheres".
Just over a month before the announcement, Margaret Hodge, a Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport suggested "that the Proms was one of several big cultural events that many people did not feel comfortable attending" and advocated an increase in multicultural works and an effort to broaden the audience. Her comments received wide criticism in the musical world and media as being a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Proms, with Gordon Brown even distancing himself from her remarks.[27]
In the 2009 season, which ran from 17 July to 12 September 2009, the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. The principal anniversary composers included:
Other composer anniversaries noted in the 2009 Proms included:
The humorist and music impresario Gerard Hoffnung was also remembered with the performance in the Last Night of Malcolm Arnold's A Grand Grand Overture, which was commissioned for the first Hoffnung Music Festival.[18] The 2009 Proms featured Bollywood music for the first time, as part of a day-long series of concerts and events also covering Indian classical music. Performers in the day included Ram Narayan, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, and Shaan.[28] Noted historical anniversaries covered in the 2009 Proms included the 75th anniversary of the MGM film musical, and the 10th year of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.[29][30][31] There was a child-oriented Prom to mark the Darwin bicentenary as well as a Free Family Prom including the Proms Family Orchestra.[18]
The 2010 Proms season ran from 16 July to 11 September. The principal anniversary composers included:
Other anniversaries of composers featured at The Proms included:
In addition, Hubert Parry and Alexander Scriabin received particular focus.[32] One day was dedicated particularly to Sir Henry Wood, including a recreation of the 1910 Last Night.[33] For families, the Doctor Who Prom, first introduced in 2008, received new renditions hosted by the newest Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan)and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill).[34][35] The booking system was also revised with a new online system to allow ticket buyers to set up a personalised Proms plan in advance to speed up the booking process.[36]
The 2011 Proms season began on 15 July 2011 and ran until 10 September 2011.
It saw the first ever 'Comedy Prom' hosted by comedian and pianist Tim Minchin, and featuring a series of other comedians, which reflects the growing relationship between music and comedy.
Many people's perception of the Proms is taken from the Last Night, although this concert is very different from the others. It usually takes place on the second Saturday in September, and is broadcast in the UK on BBC2 (first half) and BBC1 (second half). The concert is traditionally in a lighter, 'winding-down' vein, with popular classics being followed by a series of British patriotic pieces in the second half of the concert. This sequence traditionally begins with Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (Land of Hope and Glory), and continues with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, which culminates in Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia!. However, the Fantasia has not featured since 2007, though Rule, Britannia! has retained its place in the programme in its own right. The concert concludes with Hubert Parry's Jerusalem (a setting of a poem by William Blake), and the British national anthem. The repeat of the Elgar march at the Last Night can be traced to the spontaneous audience demand for an encore at its premiere at the 1901 Proms.[39] The closing sequence of the second half became fully established in 1954 during Sargent's tenure as chief conductor of The Proms.[40] The Prommers have made a tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne after the end of the concert, but it is not in the programme. However, when James Loughran, a Scot, conducted at the Last Night in the 1970s he did include the piece in the programme.
Tickets are highly sought after. Promming tickets are the same price as for other concerts during the season, but tickets for seats are more expensive. To buy a seat in advance, it is necessary to have bought tickets for at least five other Proms in the season to have a chance of getting a Last Night ticket, and either an advance booking must include those five concerts, plus an application for a Last Night ticket, or the ticket stubs must be presented at the box office when purchasing a Last Night ticket for that season; tickets can only be purchased in an equivalent (or lower) price band to that for the previous tickets. Once the advance booking period ends, there is no requirement to have booked for additional concerts, but the concert is generally sold out by this time, though returns may be available. For standing places, full season tickets automatically include last night admission, half-season ticket holders have access to a special distribution of tickets, but must purchase their Last Night ticket in addition to the cost of the season ticket; day Prommers also have to present five ticket stubs at the box office. Some standing tickets are sold on the day, just as for other concerts during the season.[41] In the post-War period, with the growing popularity of the "Last Night", the only way to obtain tickets was through a postal ballot system where prospective buyers submitted an application well in advance, along with a stamped and addressed reply envelope. The lucky ones received their tickets by return. A ballot remains for the chance to win 1 of 100 stalls seats.[41] Prior to 2009, the requirement was for six concerts in addition to the Last Night when purchasing a ticket in advance.
Prommers with tickets are likely to queue up much earlier than usual (many overnight, and in past years, some slept outside the hall up to three weeks to guard their place in the queue) in order to ensure a good place to stand in the hall. The resulting camaraderie adds to the atmosphere. Fancy dress is an optional extra: from dinner jackets to patriotic T-shirts. Many use the occasion for an exuberant display of Britishness. Union Flags are carried and waved by the Prommers, especially during Rule Britannia. Flags (mostly national flags and regional flags), balloons and party poppers are all welcome. Sir Henry Wood's bust is crowned with a laurel chaplet by representatives of the Promenaders, who often wipe an imaginary bead of sweat from his forehead or make some similar gentle visual joke.
Another tradition of the Last Night is that near the end, the conductor makes a speech thanking the musicians and audiences, mentioning the main themes covered through the season, noting the cumulative season's donations collected by the Promenaders' Musical Charities raised over the season, and announcing the date of the First Night of the Proms for the next season. The tradition of the Last Night speech dates from 1941, when Sir Henry Wood gave the first such speech at the close of that Proms season, the first at the Royal Albert Hall, where he thanked colleagues and sponsors. Wood gave another similar speech of thanks at the 1942 Last Night, and a pre-recorded version was aired to the audience at the 1943 Last Night. During his tenure, Sargent established the tone of making the Last Night speeches more humorous in nature. Subsequent conductors at the Last Night have generally continued this tradition, although one exception was in 1997 when Sir Andrew Davis more seriously addressed the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Mother Teresa, and Sir Georg Solti in his 1997 Last Night speech.[42]
The Royal Albert Hall could be filled many times over with people wishing to attend the Last Night. To accommodate these people, and to cater for those who are not near London, the Proms in the Park concerts were started in 1996. Initially there was only one, in Hyde Park, adjacent to the Hall. More locations have been added in recent years, and in 2005, Belfast, Glasgow, Swansea and Manchester hosted a Last Night Prom in the Park which was broadcast live from each venue. 2007 saw Manchester's prom being replaced by one in Middlesbrough. 2008 featured a reduction from 5 to 4 Proms in the Park, in Hyde Park, Belfast, Glasgow and Swansea. 2009 returned to a total of 5 Proms in the Park, in Hyde Park, Glasgow, Swansea, County Down and Salford. Each location has its own live concert, typically playing the countries' respective national anthems, before joining in a live big screen video link up with the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional finale.
Leonard Slatkin, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2000–2004, expressed a desire to tone down the nationalism of the Last Night somewhat, and on the Last Night of the seasons from 2002 until 2007 Rule Britannia has only been heard as part of Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs (another piece traditional to the Last Night) rather than separately. Slatkin, an American and the first non-Commonwealth citizen to lead the Last Night, conducted his first Last Night in 2001, just days after the 9/11 attacks. The atmosphere was more restrained and less festive than normal, with a heavily revised programme where the finale of Beethoven's 9th Symphony replaced the Sea Songs, and Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings was performed in tribute to the victims of the attacks.[43]
On the day of the 2005 Last Night, the hall management received word of a bomb threat, which led to a thorough search of the Albert Hall for 5 hours, but the concert took place with a modest time delay. This has led to increased security concerns, given the stature of the Last Night in British culture, which Jacqui Kelly of the Royal Albert Hall staff noted:
"That was quite a nerve-racker—our biggest event, the one everybody knows the Albert Hall for, and we were in real danger of losing it. We're an iconic thing, up there in the public eye, so we have to expect that."[44]
2008 also contained some departures from the traditional programme. Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 was moved to after the conductor's speech. In addition, most of Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs was replaced by Vaughan Williams's Sea Songs as a final tribute in his anniversary year. However, Wood's arrangements of naval bugle calls from the start of the Fantasia were retained, and Sargent's arrangement of Rule Britannia returned with Bryn Terfel as soloist. As on his 1994 Last Night appearance,[45] he sang one verse in a Welsh translation, with the chorus also translated into Welsh.
2009 saw the continued absence of Wood's Sea Songs, this time replaced by specially commissioned fanfares, and extracts from Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.[46][47] In 2009, for the first time, the Last Night was shown live in several cinemas across Asia and in Canada and Australia.[48]
The following table lists by year the conductors of the Last Night of the Proms. Normally, the Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra leads this concert, but guest conductors have directed the Last Night on several occasions.
| Conductor | Last Night(s) ...2 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19th c.–1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | |
| Sir Henry Wood 3 | 1895–1939, 1941–1943 2 | |||||||
| Sir Adrian Boult | 1945, 1946 1 7 | |||||||
| Basil Cameron | 1945 7 | |||||||
| Constant Lambert | ||||||||
| Sir Malcolm Sargent | 1947–1966 | |||||||
| Colin Davis 4 | 1967-1969 | 1970–1972 | ||||||
| Norman Del Mar | 1973, 1975 | 19831 | ||||||
| Sir Charles Groves | 1974, 1976, 19781 | |||||||
| James Loughran | 1977, 1979 | 1981, 1982, 19841 | ||||||
| Sir Charles Mackerras | 19801 | |||||||
| Vernon Handley | 19851 | |||||||
| Raymond Leppard | 19861 | |||||||
| Mark Elder | 1987 | 20061 5 | ||||||
| Sir Andrew Davis 6 | 1988 | 1990–1992, 1994–20001 | ||||||
| Sir John Pritchard | 1989 | |||||||
| Barry Wordsworth | 19931 | |||||||
| Leonard Slatkin | 2001–2004 | |||||||
| Paul Daniel | 20051 | |||||||
| Jiří Bělohlávek | 2007 | 2010 | ||||||
| Sir Roger Norrington | 20081 | |||||||
| David Robertson | 20091 8 | |||||||
| Edward Gardner | 20111 | |||||||
|
|||||