Product Description

Here is the complete story of one of the most high-profile and enduring institutions in British cultural life: the Proms. This lavishly illustrated book describes the Proms history by focusing on how changes in society have influenced its development, at the same time as revealing how the Proms itself has been responsible for shaping the tastes and listening habits of a whole nation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #247537 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

The Times
'Lavishly illustrated... the writing is lively and intelligent, and the personalities who leap from the pages are a fascinating bunch...'

The Caravan Club Magazine
'Excellent... will give Prommers some Hope and Glory until next July'

About the Author
Jenny Doctor is a Visiting Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of York. She is the author of The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922 - 36: Shaping a Nation's Tastes. David Wright is Reader in the Centre for Performance History at the Royal College of Music. Nicholas Kenyon has been director of the BBC Proms since 1996. He was a music critic for the New Yorker, The Times and the Observer, and is the author of a history of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, among other books.

Customer Reviews

Informative and interesting account of the Proms

The editor of this book, music historian and Senior Lecturer at the University of York, Jenny Doctor has done a fabulous job of creating an authoritative and thoroughly absorbing book on one of Britain's great musical institutions, The BBC Proms.

At 320 pages and a manageable size (11" x 9") it avoids becoming an unwieldy, heavy encyclopaedia confined to the desk, and should find wide appeal thanks not only to the various contributors - there's a different one for each of the eight chapters - but also for the rich array of good quality photographs and illustrations (155 of them) covering everything from early Royal Albert Hall performances to reproductions of advertisements from Proms concert programmes.

The chapters are arranged as a chronology of the Proms:

1. The Proms: An Industrious Revolution
2. Building an Orchestra, Creating an Audience 1895-1926
3. A New Dimension 1920-44
4. The BBC in Possession 1945-59
5. Reinventing the Proms 1959-63
6. Joining the Queue: The Proms Audiences
7. Branding the Postmodern Proms 1986-2007
8. Planning the Proms Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

There's also a year by year Proms chronology summary and an interesting chapter on audience capacities of the Queen's Hall and Royal Albert Hall explaining how they have changed over the years, due not only to structural modifications but also different seating/standing arrangements specific to each type of event.

I found this an extremely comprehensive and fascinating history of Britain's Proms.

The Proms in context
Although I've already got three previous books written about the Proms this one is bang up-to-date and it has a picture of my wife and I at the Last Night in 1981 so I just had to buy it.
It is an excellent review of the development of the Proms by a series of specialist writers who put each phase firmly in the social, musical and political context of the times. This gives it the edge over previous books which sometimes leave you wondering at the reasons for some of the extraordinary twists and turns in the Proms story.
My one quibble is that I think most of the writers are rather harsh in their judgements of Sir Malcolm Sargent. He may have had a limited repertoire and been something of a showman but he took music to alot of people, allowing many amateur singers the opportunity to perform with top orchestras and soloists and conveying his huge love and enthusiasm for music to thousands of children over the years at his Saturday morning concerts at the Festival Hall. And music needs personalities - Gusatvo Dudamel is a great showman for instance to name just one from the current up and coming generation of conductors.