| Main Performers | Elsie Suddaby - vocal,
Dr Harold Darke - organ,
Cyril Smith,
Phyllis Sellick - pianos,
John Moore - cello |
| Orchestra or Band | London Symphony Orchestra |
| Set List | 'God Save the King' (The National Anthem),
Overture, 'Cockaigne, Op.40', Elgar,
'Solemn Melody for Stings and Organ' (Walford Davies, John Moore, Harold Darke),
Aria, 'Voi Che Sapete' from Le Nozze Di Figaro, Mozart (Elsie Suddaby),
Recit. and Aria, 'Lusinghe Piu Care' (Alessandro), Handel (Elsie Suddaby),
'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43', Rachmaninoff (Cyril Smith),
'Symphony No.5, in C Minor, Op.67', Beethoven,
Zoological Fantasy, 'Le Carnaval Des Animaux', Saint-Saens (Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick),
Overture, 'The Flying Dutchman', Wagner |
| Performance Notes | First Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concert to be held at the Royal Albert Hall after the bombing and destruction of the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London.
"...received news of the Queen's Hall being demolished...Chappell & Co and
Royal Philharmonic Society attended the meeting and laid before Council the scheme for the proposed Promenade Concerts with an appeal for favourable consideration in regard to Rent etc
"
(Royal Albert Hall Council Minutes, 23 May 1941)
"The forty-seventh season of promenade concerts conducted by Sir Henry Wood, and the first to be given in the Albert Hall, was begun on Saturday with every symptom of popular success. There was an immense audience, which may have accounted for, though it did not excuse, the confusion into which the booking arrangements were thrown. There were queues waiting to secure places long after the concert had begun, delayed by the arguments of excited stewards with the booking clerk. When at last they got inside, where there was plenty of room, it was to find that others were occupying the numbered seats they had paid for.
The crowds who were content to stand in the promenade had the advantage over seatholders in this respect, and seemed to find their musical pleasure well worth double the money that former promenade goers used to pay for their tiring privilege. A less docile public would demand a seat of some sort for 2s.
After the National Anthem ., Elgars' Cockaigne overture began the Programme, sounding more like the hustled, overdriven London of to-day than the leisurely and pleasant city which Elgar depicted. It was followed by Walford Davies's Solemn Melody, led by a too tremulous violoncello. Miss Elsie Suddaby sang airs by Mozart and Nadel and showed herself more at ease with the ornamental manner of the latter than with the pure lyricism of Vioche sapete.
The most interesting performance of the evening was Mr Syril Smith's brilliant piano playing in the Rachmaninov's rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, but the musical climax of the first part was reached in Beethoven's immortal sympony in C minor. It needed only one clash of Rachmaninov's cymbals to tell the listeners that the famous echo of the Albert Hall has not been exorcised, though perhaps it is reduced. At any rate, everything has been done to make the place habitable, and Sir Henry Wood's unflagging gusto made his audience feel at home. In later programmes his work will be shared with Basil Cameron." (The Times, 14 July 1941) |
| Related Archival Material | Proms Guide (RAHE/1/1941/3A),
Programme (RAHE/1/1941/4) |