On consecutive nights the Prommers saw two relatively young conductors who might seem to have little in common, the very English Nicholas Collon and the very Californian Ryan Bancroft. But they have both recently been appointed to direct Scandinavian orchestras of great prestige: Collon the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (the first ever non-Finn to do so) and Bancroft the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic…
What better way to test the Royal Albert Hall’s new air cooling system than to subject it to a late Prom on the hottest London night ever. Hooray, it passed!…
Just what a force to be reckoned with the founder of the Proms, Henry Wood, must have been was beautifully demonstrated by this 150th birthday concert in his honour, concentrating on works he either premiered, arranged or introduced to London. He had a delicious habit of not telling audiences at the time when he was popping one of his ”novelties” into the programme so as not to frighten them in advance…
Youth with experience, new with the old, fresh with the traditional, fame with unknown; however they are described these four concerts were imbued with a sense of generations meeting…