As the rather natty logo on the front of this magazine will tell you, the BBC turns 100 years old in 2022 – expect all manner of party poppers and hullaballoo when the big day itself arrives in October. For classical music fans, there is in fact quite a lot to celebrate, as the staging and broadcasting of performances has been at the heart of the Beeb’s activities right from Day One. And most famous of these is, of course, the Proms. While the famous festival founded by Robert Newman and Henry Wood has been in existence for 127 years, around three-quarters of that has been under the watchful eye of ‘Auntie’ – a period that has seen Proms that range from joyful to doom-laden, from sternly serious to splendidly silly. Here, we present 100 of the most memorable…
13 August 1927
Auntie takes over
Though the BBC began life in 1922, it was five years later that the organisation took over the running of the Proms. Now 32 years old, the festival itself was very popular but not in the greatest financial health – with co-founder Robert Newman having died the year before, things were looking iffy. Keen to find a way to broadcast concerts from the Queen’s Hall, the BBC saw its chance… and pounced. ‘When I walked on to the platform for my first Promenade Concert under the British Broadcasting Corporation, I felt really elated,’ wrote conductor Henry Wood later. ‘I realised the work of such a large part of my life had been saved from an untimely death.’
24 August 1927
After her performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto grinds to a halt midway, soloist Daisy Kennedy blames a lack of rehearsal time. The BBC denies responsibility.
11 August 1928
Absent for the first year of the BBC Proms, the decorative fountain is restored to the centre of the Queen’s Hall for the new season. It continues to bring watery relief to hot and sweaty Prommers until 2011.
24 August 1928
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is performed in its entirety and with full chorus for the first time since 1902. From now on, it will become a regular part of each Proms season.
08 August 1931
Brought together as an ensemble the previous autumn, the BBC Symphony Orchestra makes its Proms debut on the First Night.
22 August 1931
Webern’s Passacaglia Op. 1 is performed for the first time in Britain, but the critics are largely sniffy about a work they regard as little more than juvenilia.
14 August 1934
Mooted in previous seasons, Berg’s Three Fragments gets its Proms premiere, sung by soprano May Blyth.
