The first Promenade concerts were held at the Queen’s Hall in London. The manager of the Queen’s Hall at that time was the impresario Robert Newman and although he had already successfully organised orchestral concerts at the Queen’s Hall he had the idea of running a series of concerts over the summer which would be of a high standard, include a wide variety of music and reach a much wider audience.
Henry Wood
In 1894 Robert Newman met an accomplished young conductor and musician called Henry Wood to discuss his idea for a series of nightly concerts which he hoped would make classical music more popular and accessible.
Reaching a Wider Audience
Newman planned to keep the ticket prices low, the atmosphere informal and include a variety of classical pieces and excerpts from popular operas. In a website article entitled “The Proms: A Beginners Guide”, Dawn Copeman explained that “the concerts would begin with easy pieces and gradually introduce more challenging pieces of music”. After his meeting with Robert Newman, Henry Wood agreed to become the conductor of a permanent orchestra at the Queen’s Hall for the very first Proms season.
Mr Robert Newman’s Promenade Concerts
The first concert of the new Proms season (then known as “Mr Robert Newman’s Promenade Concerts”) took place on August 10th 1895. They were called Promenade concerts because there were no seats in a large part of the concert hall and so the audience had to stand – this is still true at the Proms today. While the audience enjoyed a wide range of popular and more challenging music they were also allowed to eat, drink and smoke – the only thing they were asked not to do was to strike matches during the vocal pieces.
The First World War and the Proms
In the early Promenade concert seasons there were Beethoven and Wagner nights and performances of works by other German composers but the decision to continue this tradition during the First World War was very contentious. Newman and Wood believed that music was above politics but the majority of people did not share their opinion and eventually Newman was forced to sell the lease of the Queen’s Hall to repay the debts he had incurred when the Proms concerts started to lose money. The music publishers Chappells bought the lease after the war and continued to run the Proms until 1927 when the BBC took over.
The BBC and the Proms
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) asked Henry Wood to continue as conductor of the Proms and despite some doubts that broadcasting the Proms would reduce the number of people going to the concerts, the Proms started to reach an even wider audience.
The Second World War and the Proms
When the Second World War started the BBC announced that it was unable to continue running the Proms and so Wood managed to secure some private sponsorship for the 1940 and 1941 seasons. Copeman notes that many concerts were interrupted by air-raids and the 1940 season only lasted four weeks. In an air-raid in May 1941 the Queen’s Hall was destroyed by the Luftwaffe and the Proms were forced to find a new home at the Albert Hall where they have been ever since.
The Proms in the 21st Century
The BBC took over the running of the Proms again in 1942 and since that time many changes have been made. The first complete opera was performed in 1961 and over the years we have seen the introduction of music from around the world, children’s concerts, jazz concerts, folk concerts, new pieces commissioned by the BBC, pre-Prom talks, late night Proms, Proms chamber music, Proms lectures and Proms in the Park. But despite all these changes the original inspiration for the Proms lives on.
Christine Lightfoot - After completing my degree and a postgraduate teaching course my first job was as a secondary school music teacher. However, after ...
