The Proms have always kept pace with the world. That’s why they’re so glorious Nicholas Kenyon
almost 4 years in The guardian
Don’t let the furore over Rule, Britannia! detract from the music, argues the former director
The row over the musical content of the Last Night of the Proms has played into the very worst tendencies of British manufactured controversies: it combines kneejerk BBC-bashing, a familiar and all-too-easy target, politicians meddling in concert programming, a laughable irrelevance and the hounding on social media of a conductor, a particularly unpleasant development.
Why all the fuss about a concert? Because the Last Night of the Proms has always been more than a concert; it is a national event, embedded for years in our calendar of regular rituals, relayed around the world. It has to respond to the mood of the moment and to change with changing circumstances. When the death of Diana happened in August 1997, we had to remove John Adams’s fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Continue reading...
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