BBC - Symphony Orchestra

SCHOENBERG Erwartung (UK premiere)
Arnold Schoenberg conductor
BBC Studio 10, 9 January 1930
In the first years of the BBC SO, Schoenberg was invited regularly to the BBC by his pupil Edward Clark, and conducted the UK premiere of his Variations Op 31 at the Queen's Hall.

POULENC Concert champêtre (UK premiere)
Ernest Ansermet conductor
Queen's Hall, 21 January 1930
Wanda Landowska played this new harpsichord concerto in the BBC SO's first season, and Aubade followed in the 1931 Proms with Poulenc himself as soloist.

WEBERN Passacaglia Op 1 (UK premiere)
Henry Wood conductor
Queen's Hall (Proms), 22 August 1930
Anton Webern conducted the BBC SO in the studio, most notably in the UK premiere of Berg's Violin Concerto and Webern's orchestration of Bach's Ricercare. This Wood 'novelty' was his only work at the Proms before Boulez performed Webern in the 1960s.

DELIUS A Song of Summer (First performance)
Henry Wood conductor
Queen's Hall (Proms), 17 August 1930
Henry Wood performed a sequence of premieres by Delius with the BBC SO in the 1930s, including the Idyll in 1933, Fantastic Dance in 1934, and the Lionel Tertis transcription of the Violin and Viola Concerto in 1935.

HOLST Hammersmith (BBC commission)
Adrian Boult conductor
Queen's Hall, 25 November 1931
This reworking of a brass band piece was among the earliest BBC commissions, and other BBC SO premieres of his music were the Scherzo of 1935 and the Lyric Movement of 1934.

BLISS A Colour Symphony (revised version) (First performance)
Adrian Boult conductor
Queen's Hall, 17 April 1932
Bliss appeared regularly with the BBC SO conducting his own music at the Proms in the 1930s, but it was Boult who premiered this new version of A Colour Symphony.

RAVEL Piano Concerto for the left hand (UK premiere)
Henry Wood conductor
Queen's Hall (Proms), 16 August 1932
Paul Wittgenstein was the soloist in this delayed UK premiere of one of Ravel's most popular works. Wood had also introduced Bolero, to the amused derision of the critics, in 1930.