SIR HENRY WOOD’S £100

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

SIR HENRY WOOD’S £100

PRESENT FOR A GOOD FUND. LONDON'S FORTIETH SEASON. A greeting even more enthusiastic than usual welcomed Sir Henry Wood when he hastened to the conductor’s stand on the opening night of the 40th season of Promenade Concerts at the Queen’s Hall, London. A packed arena of young and old, but all young in heart, cheered Sir Henry for his kindly act in asking the 8.8. C. to give the £lOO cheque intended for himself to the British Musicians Pension Society. So the less fortunate received the gift in honour of Sir Henry’s 40th Queen’s Hall anniversary. It can have been no easy task to spend summer after summer in a crowded concert hall in the heart of London to fill a gap which made the metropolis a very dull place indeed for lovers of music last century; but these concerts have done more than wile away the summer evenings for Londoners. .They have given to the thousands of visitors who come to London from provincial towns and villages memories to last them through the winter. It is true that wireless has solved the problem of good music for out-of-the-way homes, but even to-day there is an electric atmosphere about a Queen’s Hall Promenade Concert from which few fail to catch an inspiration. There has ever been variety in the programmes; while great masterpieces are repeated year by year, many a new work has received its first public welcome under the baton of Sir Henry Wood, and there are others this year.