Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The concerts were originally known as "Mr Robert Newman's Promenade Concerts", after the impresario whose inspiration they were. In what decade did the first Proms concert take place?
2. When Henry Wood mounted the podium and picked up his baton at the start of the very first Proms concert, what piece did he conduct?
3. In what concert hall were the Proms held for almost the first 50 years of their existance?
4. For many years, there was a tradition of Monday night being "Wagner Night". But whose music would an early promenader expect to hear if they pitched up on a Friday?
5. On 5th October 1929, Henry Wood conducted an arrangement of J S Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ", orchestrated by Paul Klenovsky. What was notable about Mr Klenovsky?
6. When in 1926 Robert Newman died, the future of the Proms seemed in doubt. But what organisation stepped in to take over the organisation and funding of the Proms?
7. In what year did Sir Henry Wood die?
8. During the 1950s and 60s, which conductor, Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1950-1957, became almost as intimately associated with the Proms as Henry Wood had been before him?
9. The Proms has an enviable reputation as a showcase for new music as well as established masterpieces, and many well-known works have been given their world premieres there. But of the following pieces, which did NOT receive its world premiere at a Prom concert?
10. Up until the 1960s, no orchestra from outside the UK had appeared at the Proms. Which foreign orchestra became the first to give a concert as part of the 1966 season?
11. Who was the director of the Proms from 1960-73, who shocked some of the more traditional concertgoers by programming such avant-garde works as Stockhausen's "Kontakte" and Peter Maxwell Davies' "Worldes Blis"?
12. In 1974, during a televised performance of Karl Orff's cantata "Carmina Burana", with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn, the baritone soloist Thomas Allen fainted during his big solo, "Estuans interius. What happened next?
13. What violinist made his or her Proms debut under Henry Wood in 1937, and was back for the 100th season in 1994?
14. The world of the Proms is littered with arcane rituals that can puzzle outsiders. What activity prompts the Promenaders to cry "Heave-ho"?
15. At the Last Night of the Proms, it has become traditional for the conductor to make a short speech, saying how successful the season has been and thanking all the participants. What was memorable about the speech made by Andrew Davis in 1992?
Source: Author
stedman
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agony before going online.
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