Déjà vu
History just keeps on repeating itself…
The death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September was followed by silence at the Royal Albert Hall, as the decision was made to cancel the Last Night of the Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s BBC Prom the previous evening too. Though cancellations have been comparatively rare in the great festival’s 128-year history, they are not entirely unknown…
Unsurprisingly, the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 brought an immediate end to that year’s Proms, a cessation announced by conductor Henry Wood at the end of the concert on 1 September. In those days, the Proms season ran from mid-August until early October, so a total of 31 concerts were lost. There was also a mid-August start to the Proms 40 years later, though in this instance things should in fact have already been in motion since mid-July. As it was, a musicians’ strike in protest at the proposed abolition of five BBC ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra put paid to the first 19 Proms of the 1980 season. 2022’s cancellation was, alas, not the first suffered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The US ensemble was due to play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Proms in 2006, but a small fire at the Albert Hall put paid to the building’s electrical wiring, and no ‘Ode to Joy’ was heard. In contrast, some Proms do continue against expectations. These include the Last Night on 15 September 2001, whose programme was radically altered in the light of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.