I was fortunate that in my youth, during the war years, one could get a season ticket for the Proms (and I did, many times) for two pounds ten shillings, which worked out at a shilling a concert – and that included the first and last nights! There is nothing like being there for the final concert, the one time the vast spaces of the Royal Albert Hall come into their own, as about 4,000 voices sing Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia, and most thrilling of all, Jerusalem. Now I discover, from the present CD notes, that Parry wrote the latter in 1916 for unaccompanied chorus to further the cause of votes for women; Elgar orchestrated it in 1922. It sounds wonderfully eloquent on this excellent BBC record with Auld Lang Syne now added afterwards for good measure. And who could resist a moist eye when, in Wood’s Fantasia, everyone hums gently to “There’s no place like home”?
The present collection was compiled from four different occasions between 1977 and 1984; even Pineapple Poll is split, with the first four numbers from 1977 and the rest from 1984, but the warm resonance of the hall makes the piece cohere. The Promenaders behave well: there is a ‘peep’ at the end of the opening number and a whistle after Belaye’s hornpipe, but in any case Loughran’s performance needs jollying up a bit – he is no match for Mackerras in this scintillating pastiche: the music needs more sheer dash. The 1982 Rio Grande, however, goes splendidly, with Peter Donohoe relishing the jazzy inflexions, and the contribution of the BBC Chorus very touching at the close. Benjamin Luxon is named for his contribution to Rule Britannia but the warm female soloist in Rio Grande is not. Ibert’s Divertissement was ready-made for the Proms: too often one looks round at a performance and sees the audience straight-faced (I know this troubled Barbirolli). But here the brass unashamedly camp it up, and the finale, with its surprise police whistle, brings the house down. There is unexplained laughter at the end of the first verse of Land of Hope and Glory, but this disc generously captures the spirit of the occasion and the gloriously expansive reverberation helps those ardent voices to sound as if they mean every word (which of course they do).
If you want a memento of this famous event, you can’t beat this disc, and it is inexpensive too. Kurt Masur recently lamented that there was nothing comparable to the Proms in America. We are very lucky; no doubt Sir Henry would have been delighted.'