I imagine that the director of the Proms, Nicholas Kenyon, is currently busy with the final tweaking of the schedules for this year’s concerts.
I hope he will resist any urge to return to the nauseous and wretched jingoism traditional of the last night and continue with the more reflective and appropriate programming of the 2001 concert.
It would be all too easy, swept along on a tide of nationalism induced by the Queen’s forthcoming jubilee, to resort to the patriotic and, frankly, ludicrous concerts we have had in the past. But this is the 21st century. Let’s not forget, we are still at war with terrorism, Britain no longer rules the waves and we do not have an empire. The traditional last night is an anachronism.
Traditions change, and indeed must adapt to survive. This one is ready to pass up the evolutionary ladder.
Robert Steadman, Matlock, Derby