THE PROMS
Sig.—The annual Prom syllabus always seems to Provide ammunition for, controversy. No matter What the planners do complaints are heard that there 's too much of this and too little of that. Yet surely never before has there been such a feeble complaint as that of Mr. Bosworth in your issue of July 22. Leaving aside the actual misstatements as to the content 'of the programmes, which in itself is not very important. he offers no shred of argument at all to support his statements.
For example, Wagner. Contrary to his statement Mr. Bosworth would find, if he only examined the Prospectus instead of the Radio. Times that both Tristan and The Ring are represented. This does not affect this complaint against the lack of Wagner as compared with Henry Wood's dsy, it is true ow- ever, it should be rememberal that in the last ade or so the operas have been performed more often at Covent Garden than heretofore and also broad- cast with reasonable frequency. Mr. Bosworth, if he examines the broader field, will find that the need for concert performance of these works is not the same today.
Again, his figures regarding both Schumann and Chopin are wrong. But over and above this, what does he mean by his comment that two and a half hours of I Britten and Shostakovitch have no apparent Purpose? Are contemporary composers not to have any hearing simply because, in Sir Henry Wood's day, they were unknown? If one may quote, 'Sir Henry's remarks would be worth hearing.'
True, Mr. Glock has been unable to put in every- thing. Who could in eight weeks? That task would baffle Life most astute programme planner.
Strangely enough, the most obvious complaint appears to have been generally overlooked. On all sides the critics have praised Sir Malcolm Sargent for admitting a number of young conductors to the rostrum. Yet if we take a closer look we find that in fact Sir Malcolm is making one more appearance than last season. The person giving way is, of course, Mr. Basil Cameron, who will make only half the appearances that he did during the course of last season. When we remember the work Mr. Cameron has done during the past twenty years this seems to be scurvy treatment. True, Sir Malcolm is sharing a number of concerts, but this is nothing new for always in the past few years he has had a young assistant to t -Ip. The only difference is that this year he has a number 01 co-conductors instead of one. It is probably hoping for too much to expect him to acknowledge this in one of his public pro- nouncements during the season.—Yours faithfully,
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