Origins and Sir Henry Wood until its destruction in 1941 Promenade concerts had existed in London's pleasure gardens since the mid-18th century, and indoor proms became a feature of 19th century musical life in London from 1838, notably under the direction of
Louis Antoine Jullien and Sir
Arthur Sullivan. The annual series of Proms continuing today had their roots in that movement. They were inaugurated on 10 August 1895 in the
Queen's Hall in
Langham Place by the impresario
Robert Newman, who was fully experienced in running similar concerts at
Her Majesty's Theatre. Newman wished to generate a wider audience for concert hall music by offering low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere, where eating, drinking and smoking were permitted to the promenaders. He stated his aim to
Henry Wood in 1894 as follows: George Cathcart, an
otolaryngologist, gave financial backing to Newman for the series (called "Mr Robert Newman's Promenade Concerts") on condition that Henry Wood be employed as the sole conductor. Wood, aged 26, seized this opportunity and built the "Queen's Hall Orchestra" as the ensemble specially devoted to performing the promenade concerts. Cathcart also stipulated (contrary to Newman's preference) the adoption of French or Open Diapason
concert pitch, necessitating the acquisition of an entirely new set of wind instruments for the orchestra, and the re-tuning of the Queen's Hall organ. This coincided with the adoption of this lower pitch by other leading orchestras and concert series. Although the concerts gained a popular following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902, and the banker
Edgar Speyer took over the expense of funding them. Wood received a knighthood in 1911. In 1914,
anti-German feeling led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers
Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts. As conductor from the first concert (which opened with Wagner's
Rienzi overture) in 1895, Sir Henry was largely responsible for building the repertoire heard as the series continued from year to year. While including many popular and less demanding works, in the first season there were substantial nights devoted to Beethoven or Schubert, and a programme of new works was given in the final week. Distinguished singers including
Sims Reeves and
Signor Foli appeared. In the first two decades Wood firmly established the policy of introducing works by contemporary composers (both British and international) and of bringing fresh life to unperformed or under-performed works. A bronze bust of Sir Henry Wood recovered from the ruins of the bombed-out Queen's Hall in 1941, and now belonging to the
Royal Academy of Music, is still placed in front of
the organ for the whole Promenade season. Though the concerts are now called the BBC Proms, and are headlined with the BBC logo, the tickets are subtitled "BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts". In 1927, following Newman's sudden death in the previous year, the
BBC (which later based at
Broadcasting House next to the hall) began running the concerts. This arose because William Boosey, then managing director of Chappell & Co. (the Prom proprietors), detested broadcasting and saw the BBC's far-reaching demands and intentions in the control of musical presentation as a danger to the future of public concerts altogether. He decided to disband the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, which played for the last time at a Symphony concert on 19 March 1927. He found it more expedient to let the Queen's Hall to the broadcasting powers, rather than to continue the Promenade concerts and other big series independently in an unequal competition with what he saw as effectively the Government itself. So the Proms were saved, but under a different kind of authority. The personnel of the New Queen's Hall Orchestra effectively continued until 1930 as "Sir Henry J. Wood and his Symphony Orchestra". When the
BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) was formed in 1930, it became the main orchestra for the concerts. At this time the season consisted of nights dedicated to particular composers; Mondays were
Wagner, Fridays were
Beethoven, with other major composers being featured on other days. There were no Sunday performances.
During World War II in 1944 (pictured here during the 2008 Proms season With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the BBC withdrew its support. However private sponsors stepped in to maintain the Proms, always under Sir Henry Wood's direction, until the Queen's Hall was devastated beyond repair during an
air raid in May 1941. (The site is now occupied by the St George's Hotel and BBC Henry Wood House). The concerts then moved (until 1944) to their current home, the Royal Albert Hall, during the Promenade season presented by Keith Douglas in conjunction with the
Royal Philharmonic Society (of which he was Secretary). The London Symphony Orchestra had sometimes assisted in the series since (after 1927) the New Queen's Hall Orchestra had ceased to function, and in 1942, Sir Henry Wood also invited the
London Philharmonic Orchestra under its new leader
Jean Pougnet to participate in this and subsequent seasons. In this he was attempting to maintain vigour in the programme, under the renewal of its relationship with the BBC as promoters. Sir Henry Wood continued his work with the Proms through vicissitudes with the BBC until his death in 1944, the year of his Jubilee Season. During that period Sir
Adrian Boult, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and
Basil Cameron also took on conducting duties for the series, continuing them in 1944 when, under increased danger from bombing, they were moved again, this time to the
Bedford Corn Exchange (home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1941) which hosted them until the end of the War.
Post-war , 2022 Sir Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron continued as conductors of the Promenade Concerts after the War, on their return to the Royal Albert Hall, until the advent of
Malcolm Sargent as Proms chief conductor in 1947. Sargent held this post until 1966; his associate conductor from 1949 to 1959 was
John Hollingsworth. Sargent was noted for his immaculate appearance (
evening dress,
carnation) and his witty addresses where he good-naturedly chided the noisy Prommers. Sir Malcolm championed choral music and classical and British composers, especially
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The charity founded in his name,
CLIC Sargent, continues to hold a special Promenade Concert each year shortly after the main season ends. CLIC Sargent, the
Musicians' Benevolent Fund and further musical charities (chosen each year) also benefit from thousands of pounds in donations from Prommers after most concerts. When asking for donations, Prommers from the Arena regularly announce to the audience the running donations total at concert intervals through the season, or before the concert when there is no interval. After Wood's death, Julian Herbage acted as
de facto principal administrator of the Proms for a number of years, as a freelance employee after his retirement from the BBC, with assistance from such staff as
Edward Clark and Kenneth Wright. During the tenure of
William Glock as Controller of the Proms, from 1960 to 1973, the Proms repertory expanded both forwards in time, to encompass then contemporary and avant-garde composers such as
Boulez,
Berio,
Carter,
Dallapiccola,
Peter Maxwell Davies,
Gerhard,
Henze,
Ligeti,
Lutosławski,
Lutyens,
Maw,
Messiaen,
Nono,
Stockhausen, and
Tippett, as well as backwards to include music by past composers such as
Purcell,
Cavalli,
Monteverdi,
Byrd,
Palestrina,
Dufay,
Dunstaple, and
Machaut, as well as less-often performed works of
Johann Sebastian Bach and
Joseph Haydn. From the 1960s, the number of guest orchestras at the Proms also began to increase, with the first major international conductors (
Leopold Stokowski,
Georg Solti, and
Carlo Maria Giulini) performing in 1963, and the first foreign orchestra, the
Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing in 1966. Since that time, almost every major international orchestra, conductor and soloist has performed at the Proms. In 1970,
Soft Machine's appearance led to press attention and comment as the first "pop" band to perform there. The 1968 season began on a Friday evening instead of the usual Saturday. This concert marked a tribute to Sir Malcolm Sargent who had died shortly after delivering a brief speech from the rostrum at the Last Night in 1967. He had been too ill to actually conduct that concert. Every year since then, the Proms have started on a Friday evening in mid-July.
Since 1990 The Proms continue today, and still present newly commissioned music alongside pieces more central to the repertoire and early music. Innovations continue, with pre-Prom talks, lunchtime chamber concerts, children's Proms, Proms in the Park either appearing, or being featured more heavily over the past few years. In the UK, all concerts are broadcast on
BBC Radio 3, an increasing number are televised on
BBC Four with some also shown on
BBC One and
BBC Two. The theme tune that used to be played at the beginning of each programme broadcast on television (until the 2011 season) was an extract from the end of the "Red" movement of
Arthur Bliss's
A Colour Symphony, in 2017
Anna Clyne's
Masquerade (a Proms commission in 2013) and since 2019, an original theme by
Ian Arber. It is also possible to hear the concerts live from the BBC Proms website. The Last Night is also broadcast in many countries around the world. In 1996, a related series of eight lunchtime chamber concerts was started, taking place on Mondays during the Proms season. In their first year these were held in the Britten Hall of the
Royal College of Music (just across
Prince Consort Road from the Albert Hall). The following year they moved slightly further afield, to the
Henry Cole Lecture Theatre at the
Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2005, they moved further again, to the new Cadogan Hall, just off London's
Sloane Square. These allow the Proms to include music which is not suitable for the vast spaces of the Albert Hall. From 1998 to 2007, the
Blue Peter Prom, in partnership with long-running BBC television programme
Blue Peter, was an annual fixture. Aimed at children and families, the Prom is informal, including audience participation, jokes, and popular classics. High demand for tickets (which are among the lowest priced in the season) saw this Prom split in 2004 into two Proms with identical content. In 2008, the Blue Peter Prom was replaced with a
Doctor Who Prom which was revived in the 2010, 2013 and 2024 seasons. The 2004 season also featured the Hall's newly rebuilt
pipe organ. It took two years to complete the task (2002–2004) and was the work of Noel Mander, Ltd., of London. It was the first complete restoration of the instrument since Harrison and Harrison's work in 1936. The tradition of Promming remains an important aspect of the festival, with over 1000 standing places available for each concert, either in the central arena (rather like the
groundlings in the pit at
Shakespeare's Globe) or high in the hall's gallery. Promming tickets cost the same for all concerts (currently £8 as of 2023), providing a considerably cheaper option for the more popular events. Since most promming tickets cannot be bought until 10:30am on the morning of the concert (although there are full-season tickets and weekend passes available), they provide a way of attending otherwise sold-out concerts. In 2010, the Proms Archive was introduced on the BBC Proms webpage, to allow for a systematic searching of all works that have been performed and all artists who have appeared at the Proms since their inception. Successive Controllers of the Proms after Glock have been Robert Ponsonby (1973–1985),
John Drummond (1986–1995),
Nicholas Kenyon (1996–2007), and
Roger Wright (2007–2014). Between 1986 and 2014, the post of Director, BBC Proms had mostly been combined with the role of Controller, BBC Radio 3. Edward Blakeman, editor of BBC Radio 3, became interim Proms Director upon Wright's departure in July 2014. In May 2015, the
BBC announced the appointment of David Pickard as Director of BBC Proms, in succession to Wright. In November 2023, the BBC announced that Pickard would be departing as Proms Director after the 2024 season. In February 2024, Sam Jackson was appointed as Director of The Proms starting in the 2025 season. can be seen in front of
the organ. ==Last Night of the Proms== . Many people's perception of the Proms is based on the Last Night, although this is very different from the other concerts. It usually takes place on the second Saturday in September, and is broadcast in the UK on
BBC Radio 3, and on television on
BBC Two (first half) and
BBC One (second half). The concert is traditionally in a lighter, 'winding-down' vein, with popular classics followed by a second half of British patriotic pieces. This sequence traditionally includes
Edward Elgar's "
Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1" (to part of which "
Land of Hope and Glory" is sung) and Henry Wood's "
Fantasia on British Sea Songs", followed by
Thomas Arne's "
Rule, Britannia!". The concert concludes with
Hubert Parry's "
Jerusalem", and the
British national anthem, since 2010 in an arrangement by
Benjamin Britten. The repeat of the Elgar march at the Last Night can be traced to the spontaneous audience demand for a double encore after its premiere at a 1901 Proms concert. The closing sequence of the second half became fully established in 1954 during Sargent's tenure as chief conductor. The Prommers have made a tradition of singing "
Auld Lang Syne" after the end of the concert, but this was not included in the programme until 2015. However, when
James Loughran, a Scot, conducted the Last Night concert in the late 1970s and early 1980s he did include the piece within the programme. Tickets are highly sought after. Promming tickets are priced the same as for that season's concerts, but seated tickets are more expensive. To pre-book a seat, an initial selection is released to winners of a ballot open to those who have booked five or more Prom concerts, and in 2023 there was also an advance sale to those who had seats booked for the cancelled 2022 event. After the advance-booking period, there is no requirement to have booked for additional concerts, but by then the Last Night is mostly sold out, although returns may be available. For standing places, a full season pass automatically includes admission to the Last Night; some day Prommers can get limited tickets available on various dates by presenting five ticket-stubs from previous concerts, either in the Arena or Gallery (prior to 2009, the requirement was for six other concerts); a limited number of day Promming tickets are open to anyone on the morning of the concert, whether they have booked before or not. In the post-war period, with the growing popularity of the Last Night, the only way to obtain Promming tickets was through a postal ballot held well in advance of the concert. Prommers with tickets are likely to queue up much earlier than usual (many overnight, and in past years, some slept outside the hall for up to three weeks to guard their place – although this is no longer permitted) to ensure a good place to stand; the resulting camaraderie adds to the atmosphere. Some attend in
fancy dress, from
dinner jackets to patriotic T-shirts. Many use the occasion for an exuberant display of
Britishness.
Union Flags are waved by the Prommers, especially during "Rule, Britannia!". Other national flags, balloons, and party poppers are all welcomed – although John Drummond discouraged 'extraneous noise' during his tenure as director. Sir Henry Wood's bust is adorned with a
laurel chaplet by representatives of the Promenaders, who often wipe an imaginary bead of sweat from his forehead or make some similar gentle, visual joke. As with the rest of the season, the cost of promming tickets (standing tickets) is just £8. Many consider these to be the best tickets due to the atmosphere of standing in the hall for up to three hours; albeit with a twenty-five minute interval. Another tradition is that near the end of the concert the conductor makes a speech thanking the musicians and audiences, mentioning the main themes of the season, noting the cumulative donation collected for the Promenaders' musical charities over the season, and announcing the date of the First Night for the following year. This tradition dates from 1941, when Sir Henry Wood gave the first such speech at the close of that season, which was the first at the Royal Albert Hall, when he thanked colleagues and sponsors. Wood gave a similar speech at the 1942 Last Night, and a pre-recorded version was played at the 1943 Last Night. During his tenure as conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent established the tone of making the Last Night speech more humorous. Subsequent conductors have generally continued this, although one exception was in 1997 when
Andrew Davis addressed the deaths of
Diana, Princess of Wales,
Mother Teresa, and Sir
Georg Solti in 1997.
Leonard Slatkin, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to 2004, expressed a desire to tone down the nationalism of the Last Night, and during the seasons from 2002 until 2007 "Rule Britannia" was only heard as part of Henry Wood's '"
Fantasia on British Sea Songs" (another piece traditional to the Last Night) rather than separately. Slatkin, an American and the first non-
Commonwealth citizen to lead the Last Night, conducted his first in 2001, just days after the
9/11 attacks. The atmosphere was more restrained and less festive than normal, with a heavily revised programme where the finale of
Beethoven's 9th Symphony replaced the "Sea Songs", and
Samuel Barber's "
Adagio for Strings" was performed in tribute to 9/11 victims. On the day of the 2005 Last Night, the hall management received word of a bomb threat, which led to a thorough search of the Albert Hall for 5 hours, but the concert took place after a short delay. This has led to increased security concerns, given the stature of the Last Night in British culture, which Jacqui Kelly of the Royal Albert Hall staff noted: 2008 also contained some departures from the traditional programme. "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" was moved to after the conductor's speech. In addition, most of Wood's "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" was replaced by Vaughan Williams's
Sea Songs as a final tribute in his anniversary year. However, Wood's arrangements of naval bugle calls from the start of the "Fantasia" were retained, and Sargent's arrangement of "Rule Britannia" returned with
Bryn Terfel as soloist. As on his 1994 Last Night appearance, he sang one verse in a Welsh translation, with the chorus also translated into Welsh. Additionally, 2008 saw the inclusion of Scottish composer
Anna Meredith to the programme for her Proms premiere,
froms, which involved five different groups of musicians telecasting in from around Britain. 2009 saw the continued absence of Wood's
Sea Songs, this time replaced by specially commissioned fanfares, and extracts from
Handel's "
Music for the Royal Fireworks". In 2009, for the first time, the Last Night was shown live in several cinemas across Asia and in Canada and Australia. In 2020, the concert was performed to an empty hall, due to the
COVID-19 restrictions in place in the UK. As a result of the cancellation, the date for the First Night of the 2023 Proms wasn't announced until April 2023.
Last Night conductors The following table lists by year the conductors of the Last Night of the Proms. In general, since the tenure of Sargent, the Chief Conductor of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra has led this concert, but guest conductors have directed the Last Night on several occasions. Additionally, the tradition was for a British conductor, and if not the current serving Chief Conductor, one who had an association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra or one of the other BBC orchestras.
Charles Mackerras was the first non-British-born conductor to lead the Last Night, in 1980.
Leonard Slatkin was the first American conductor of the Last Night in 2001.
Jiří Bělohlávek was the first non-native English speaker to conduct the Last Night, in 2007.
Marin Alsop was the Last Night's first female conductor in 2013. ==Proms in the Park==