Proms Conference 2007

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A three-day non-residential conference exploring the impact of the Proms on our musical culture took place on 23-25 April 2007.

This was the first ever international conference devoted to the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts: The Proms and British Musical Life.
It was held at the British Library in partnership with the BBC and King's College London.

Music Matters at the conference, 28 April 2007.

This event offered a unique stimulating opportunity to participate in discussion with experts from various disciplines, who considered the role the Proms play in British musical life. It provided a fruitful forum for anyone interested in the history of musical performance, patronage, cultural politics, and the BBC. More generally, the conference provided an opportunity to reflect on the current status of classical music.

Prommers queuing outside the Royal Albert Hall in 1945

Our aim was to establish a productive environment for exchanges between practitioners, media commentators and academics. The conference included an introductory lecture by Lord Asa Briggs, plenary lectures, panels, interviews, demonstrations and sessions of papers, as well as a concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an exhibition at the British Library devoted to the history of the Promenade Concerts since their foundation. The events culminated in the launch of the 2007 BBC Proms.

Download the conference programme and abstracts here.

"Celebrating the Proms: From Henry Wood to Hyde Park" British library online exhibition.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Visit the "Celebrating the Proms: From Henry Wood to Hyde Park" exhibition at the British Library from 8 April to 11 July.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Programme:

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Day 1: Monday 23 April 2007

09.00 - 10.00 Registration (tea/coffee provided)
10.00 - 10.15 WELCOME Rick Trainor (KCL), Lynne Brindley (BL), Jenny Abramsky (BBC)
10.15 - 10.45 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE Lord Briggs: Leading to the 'Moment of 1927'
10.45 - 11.30 PLENARY PANEL: Introducing main conference themes: Proms History, Media, Repertory, Festival and Ritual, Public and Private Funding.
Chair: John Deathridge
Jenny Doctor, Alain Frogley and Paul Kildea

11.30 - 11.45 Break (tea/coffee provided)

11.45 - 13.00 PLENARY PANEL: What did the Proms Sound Like?
Lewis Foreman: 'Living History: the Proms and London Concert Life in surviving recordings 1926-1950. Repertoire, performances, audiences.'
David Patmore: 'Sir Henry Wood on record: 1925-1940: industrial strategies laid bare.'

13.00 - 14.00 Break

14.00 - 16.15 PARALLEL SESSIONS
i) The Henry Wood Era
Chair: Byron Adams
Leanne Langley: 'Banker, Baronet, Saviour, 'Spy': Sir Edgar Speyer and the Queen's Hall Proms, 1902-14.'
Geoffrey Chew: 'Anticipations of the New Europe: Rosa Newmarch and Slavonic music at the Proms.'
Philip Ross Bullock: 'Hope for our musical future: Rosa Newmarch, Russia and the Proms.'
Laura Seddon: 'Wood's Women: The Henry Wood Proms and the Woman Composer 1910-20.'
ii) The Proms during World War II
Chair: Alain Frogley
Christina Baade: 'The Popular Classics?: Classical Adaptations during the People's War.'
Jenny Doctor: 'The Politics of Entertainment: Allied Music in the Proms.'
Arthur Searle and Richard Dunn: 'The Proms Seasons of 1940 and 1941.'
Constance Dee: 'The Hammer and Sickle in British Culture: Soviet Music and the Wartime Proms.'
Pauline Fairclough: Respondent

16.15 - 16.45 Break (tea/coffee provided)

16.45 - 17.45 PLENARY LECTURE David Cannadine: The Last Night
Chaired by Stephen Banfield
17.45 End of sessions

19.30 BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at Maida Vale Studio 1
Conducted by Oliver Knussen.
Proms premieres by Schoenberg, Bridge, Anderson, Goehr, Britten.

Day 2: Tuesday 24 April 2007

9.30 - 10.30 PLENARY LECTURE Paddy Scannell: The Proms as a National and Historic Media Event that is part of national life.

10.30 - 11.00 Break (tea/coffee provided)

11.00 - 13.00 PLENARY DEMONSTRATION PANEL: Changing Visions: The Proms on Radio and TV.
Chair: Peter Maniura
Roy Tipping, Charles Hazelwood, Humphrey Burton
Richard Witts: 'The Hall in your Home' - the Proms on radio and television, 1942 -1969

13.00 - 14.00 Break

14.00 - 16.15 PARALLEL SESSIONS
i) Legacies: From Sargent to Glock
Chair: Leanne Langley
Richard Aldous on Sargent
Alison Garnham on Sargent
David Wright: 'Punkte-Kontra-Punkte: unfamiliar perspectives on Glock's concert programming.'
Gwendolyn Tietze & Hanna Vleck: 'Fighting 'New Music': William Glock's programming revolution at the BBC Proms.'
Annette Moreau: Respondent
ii) Programming and performance
Nicholas Kenyon: 'The Programming of Symphonies'
Bradley Strauchen: 'A national voice: instruments of the English orchestra during the first half of the 20th century.'
Michael Payne: 'Not Today Thank You: Eric Coates, the Four Centuries Suite and the Promenade Concerts 1943-1944.'
Sheena Cleaton: 'BBC Music Policy and British Protectionism in the 1930s.'

16.15 - 16.45 Break (tea/coffee provided)

16.45 - 17.45 PLENARY DISCUSSION: Filmed interviews with Pierre Boulez and Colin Davis; discussion on conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, audiences. Chaired by James Naughtie, with George Benjamin, William Waterhouse, Vernon Frost.
17.45 End of sessions

17.45 - 18.45 CONFERENCE DRINKS at British Library conference centre. Including launch of new Thames & Hudson book on the Proms.

Day 3: Wednesday 25 April 2007

09.30 - 11.00 PLENARY PANEL 'The Cultural Politics of the BBC': role of technology, changing cultural & political scenes, live broadcasting, disaggregation of listening, changing aesthetics
Chaired by John Deathridge, with Georgina Born and Byron Adams.

11.00 - 11.30 Break (tea/coffee provided)

11.30 - 13.00 PARALLEL SESSIONS
i) 'Reaching Wider'
Chair: Sophie Fuller
Irene Morra: 'The Electric Proms: Defining a Contemporary British Music'
MJ Grant: 'For auld lang syne: Song and social cohesion at the Last Night(s) of the Proms.'
ii) Listening & Audiences
Chair: Amy Carruthers
Tim Day: Sargent - listening to works and composers and not to performers
Ivan Hewett: How do audiences feel about the Proms?
Malcolm Miller: 'New Music at the Proms: Patronage or Patronising?'

13.00 - 14.00 Break

14.00 - 15.00 PLENARY LECTURE
Prof John Deathridge, Standing Up for Classical Music

15.00 - 15.30 Break (tea/coffee provided)

15.30 - 17.00 PLENARY PANEL: 'The Future of the Proms': Final plenary session about the future of the Proms, and the future of new music:
i) Media, technology and the Proms (including the influence of television)
ii) Demographics and the Future of the Proms
iii) The role of the Concert in the 21st Century music scene (including the survival of the Proms as a series of concerts)
iv) The Future of 'New Music'
Chaired by Jean Seaton, with Alain Frogley, Jenny Doctor, Paul Kildea, Roger Parker, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Sophie Fuller.

17.00 End of sessions