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BBC Proms
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===Origins and Sir Henry Wood=== Promenade concerts had existed in London's pleasure gardens since the mid-18th century, and indoor proms became a feature of 19th century musical life in London from 1838, notably under the direction of [[Louis Antoine Jullien]] and [[Sir Arthur Sullivan]].<ref>Robert Elkin, ''Queen's Hall, 1893β1941'' (Rider & Co, London 1944), pp. 25β6.</ref> The annual series of Proms continuing today had their roots in that movement. They were inaugurated on 10 August 1895 in the [[Queen's Hall]] in [[Langham Place, London|Langham Place]] by the impresario [[Robert Newman (impresario)|Robert Newman]], who was fully experienced in running similar concerts at [[Her Majesty's Theatre]].<ref>Henry J. Wood, ''My Life of Music'' (Victor Gollancz, London, First edition 1938, cheap edition 1946), 1946, p. 68.</ref> Newman wished to generate a wider audience for concert hall music by offering low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere, where eating, drinking and smoking were permitted to the promenaders. He stated his aim to [[Henry Wood]] in 1894<ref>Wood, 1946, p. 68.</ref> as follows: {{blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite news | author=Ivan Hewett | title= The Proms and the Promenerders | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/07/12/nosplit/bmproms112.xml | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=12 July 2007 | access-date=20 July 2008 | location=London}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>}} George Cathcart, an [[otolaryngologist]], gave financial backing to Newman for the series (called "Mr Robert Newman's Promenade Concerts") on condition that Henry Wood be employed as the sole conductor.<ref>{{cite news | author=Peter Mullen | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/everyone-knows-henry-wood-set-up-the-proms-but-who-remembers-the-man-who-hired-him-to-do-it-by-peter-mullen-1592519.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/everyone-knows-henry-wood-set-up-the-proms-but-who-remembers-the-man-who-hired-him-to-do-it-by-peter-mullen-1592519.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=Everyone knows Henry Wood set up the Proms. But who remembers the man who hired him to do it? | work=The Independent | date=21 July 1995| access-date=19 April 2009 | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=John Smith | url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showbiz/s/1058858_encore_for_the_proms | title=Encore for the Proms | work=Manchester Evening News | date= 18 April 2010| access-date=19 April 2009}}</ref> Wood, aged 26, seized this opportunity and built the "Queen's Hall Orchestra" as the ensemble specially devoted to performing the promenade concerts.<ref>Wood 1946, pp. 68β84.</ref> Cathcart also stipulated (contrary to Newman's preference) the adoption of French or Open Diapason [[concert pitch]], necessitating the acquisition of an entirely new set of wind instruments for the orchestra, and the re-tuning of the Queen's Hall organ. This coincided with the adoption of this lower pitch by other leading orchestras and concert series.<ref>Wood 1946, pp. 69β71, 73.</ref> 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 them. Wood received a knighthood in 1911. In 1914 [[Anti-German sentiment#World War I|anti-German feeling]] led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers [[Chappell & Co.]] took control of the concerts.<ref name="Jacobs">{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37001 |title= Wood, Sir Henry Joseph (1869β1944) |last=Jacobs |first=Arthur |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37001}}</ref> Although Newman remained involved in artistic planning, it was Wood's name which became most closely associated with the Proms.<ref>In a BBC interview recorded on 23 August 1941, introducing Sir Henry Wood, W. W. Thompson, the orchestral manager, remarked, "There's only one man to speak for the Proms, for he ''is'' the Proms. That's Sir Henry Wood. Would you live them over again, Sir Henry?" (Henry Wood): "Every day and every hour." (Thompson): "All those five thousand concerts?" (Henry Wood): "Every one of them." R. Elkin, ''Queen's Hall 1893β1941'' (Rider & Co., London 1944), Transcript pp. 138β46, at p. 143.</ref> As conductor from the first concert (which opened with Wagner's ''[[Rienzi]]'' overture) in 1895, Sir Henry was largely responsible for building the repertoire heard as the series continued from year to year. While including many popular and less demanding works, in the first season there were substantial nights devoted to Beethoven or Schubert, and a programme of new works was given in the final week. Distinguished singers including [[Sims Reeves]] and [[Signor Foli]] appeared. In the first two decades Wood firmly established the policy of introducing works by contemporary composers (both British and international) and of bringing fresh life to unperformed or under-performed works.<ref>For a list of Wood's principal 'novelties' from 1895 to 1937, see Wood 1946, pp. 353β372.</ref> A bronze bust of Sir Henry Wood recovered from the ruins of the bombed-out Queen's Hall in 1941, and now belonging to the [[Royal Academy of Music]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ram.ac.uk/sir-henry-wood-collection|title=Sir Henry Wood Collection.|access-date=13 September 2014}}</ref> is still placed in front of [[Royal Albert Hall Organ|the organ]] for the whole Promenade season. Though the concerts are now called the BBC Proms, and are headlined with the BBC logo, the tickets are subtitled "BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts". [[File:Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra 1928.png|thumb|Sir Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra, rehearsing for the first Promenade Concert of the 1927 Season, from the ''BBC Hand Book 1928'']] In 1927, following Newman's sudden death in the previous year, the [[BBC]] β later based at [[Broadcasting House]] next to the hall β took over the running of the concerts.<ref name="BBCHB">{{cite book|chapter=Symphony concerts |title=BBC Hand Book 1929 |date=1928 |publisher=[[BBC]] |pages=71β72 |chapter-url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BBC-Annual/BBC-Year-Book-1929.pdf}}</ref> This arose because William Boosey, then managing director of Chappell & Co. (the Prom. proprietors), detested broadcasting and saw the BBC's far-reaching demands and intentions in the control of musical presentation as a danger to the future of public concerts altogether. He decided to disband the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, which played for the last time at a Symphony concert on 19 March 1927. He found it more expedient to let the Queen's Hall to the broadcasting powers, rather than to continue the Promenade concerts and other big series independently in an unequal competition with what he saw as effectively the Government itself. So the Proms were saved, but under a different kind of authority. The personnel of the New Queen's Hall Orchestra effectively continued until 1930 as "Sir Henry J. Wood and his Symphony Orchestra".<ref>Elkin 1944, p. 33, quoting from W. Boosey, ''Fifty Years of Music'' (Ernest Benn Limited, London 1931), at [https://archive.org/stream/fiftyyearsofmusi002543mbp#page/n195/mode/2up/search/concert-giver pp. 177β78]. The title "Queen's Hall Orchestra2 was briefly revived in 1935 and 1936 for some recordings and a series of Sunday Concerts.</ref> 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.
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