"THE PROMS"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 117, 20 May 1941, Page 6

"THE PROMS"

QUEEN'S HALL NO MORE

HIGH PRIEST OF MUSIC

FAITHFUL DEVOTEES

(By G. 0.) Queen's Hall is no more! Its ashes lie cold and black on the altar of German Kultur. Never again shall its walls resound to music of the greatest, great, and lesser masters. Never again shall German conductors wave baton there nor German singers and players on instruments be heard there. Never again shall critical and ecstatic Germans (especially on Wagner occasions) form, a large part of the audiences assembled there. There shall be no more "proms"! This world-known temple of music • has been utterly destroyed. Never again shall pilgrims from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, United States, and many Continental countries go there to be ministered to in terms of music. What of its arch-priest, Sir Henry Wood? What has he to say about the destruction of his temple? What does he think about it? So far nothing has been sent out as to what he has thought or said (if anything); but being the man he is he may be now looking over other quarters (still standing) in which he and his heirophants can resume their services to music. For nearly fifty years Sir Henry Wood has been associated with Queen's Hall and the promenade concerts were given there as far back as 1895. and later symphony concerts. But he has found time to conduct at great musical events in Rome, Cape Town, Hollywood, Boston, New York, Zurich, Copenhagen, as well as in London. He may be out of Queen's Hall but he is not out of a job. * * * * The "proms" attracted a great variety of people, by no means all residents of London. The programmes submitted for their delectation may not always have satisfied all the critics, but they did draw the people. Here is a sample:—Toccata in F for orchestra (Bach); Pacific No. 231 (descriptive of a great locomotive in action) (Honegger); Symphony (Cesar Franck); Spanish Dances (de Falla). Selections were made, of course, from works of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert Dvorak, Tschaikovsky, and in addition from works of British composers, including Elgar, Hoist, Delius, EthelSmyth, Rutland Boughton. Stravinsky, Scriabin, Debussy, Ravel, and Respighi figured in the "prom" programmes. Busoni, Ysaye, Elman, Moiseiwitsch, Suggia played there; John Brownlee, Rosina Buckman, Peter Dawson sang there. For 2s one could hear the best of music, vocal and instrumental, and never be bored. True, there were no seats on the floor of the hall —save a small settee just below the platform, but then the concert was a promenade. Seats were available in the balcony. Smoking was permitted (except in a portion of the grand circle reserved for non-smokers), yet the atmosphere did not become too cloudy, for many found it difficult to pay attention to the performance of some great symphony and smoke at the one time. There was, too, a bar, and tea and .coffee were obtainable—a little refinement that meant so much, cost so little, and is still unknown in New Zealand. ■ * * * * There were great concerts in the afternobn, solid Wagnerian affairs, many of them. Here the Symphonic Fantastique of Berlioz could be heard or the afternoon spent in the company of Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal and the Valkyries. What a coming out it was from this strange and legendary world into the realities of Langham Place and Regent Street and Oxford Street, with the traffic and mephitic fumes of motor buses! Which was the real world? Was it among the immortals in Queen's Hall or with the hurrying crowds in the streets, the alluring shops, and newsboys crying "All the winners!"? Where now will go the sedulous attendants at these Queen's Hall banquets who went with scores to follow the music note by note? But to others, who went to hear the music and came away satisfied and gratified, this practice may have seemed like eating a good dinner and checking up every item in. the menu with Mrs. Beeton at the elbow. * * * # One great fact Queen's Hall certainly established and that was that classical music can be made popular and symphony concerts profitable. Now the place has been utterly destroyed. Yet it seems safe to assume that great music once heard there will be heard again, if elsewhere. It will not cease.