Promenade Concerts Promenade Concerts begin at the Albert Hall to-morrow and all the announce- ments about the series show a fixed deter- mination to make them as like as possible to those which we have known at Queen's Hall. Promenade Concerts were begun in Queen's Hall on August 10, 1895. There was no prearranged plan, not even as to the length of the season, but it soon appeared that there was a determination to make these concerts as unlike as possible to the hitherto popular Promenades of Covent Garden. The aim was towards novelty, and the confidence of the public was quickly won by that aim. Thc opening night did not seem so very new. There were five solo singers, and flute, bassoon, and cornet solos played by members of the orchestra. That was the sort of thing that was expected of Promenade Concerts. Still there were points of distinction, and the first of them noticed in Trhe Tines of that day was the introduction of the French pitch or diapasont nornial, which was described as " a step towards the adoption of that universal pitch which would be so vast a gain to the musical world generally." Probably, not many people noticed it, or realize that it meant breaking down the insularity from which musical performance in this country had suffered. The next point of distinction is noted in the following sentence: - Mr. H. 1. Wood, the conductor. has alrcady shown himself a musician of ability. and in the ovcrture to Rienzi and other pieccs he displayed a good beat and ample command over his forccs. So H. J. W. went straight off the mark xvith Wagner in the first programme ! There was also a new German work by a disciple of Wagner, Cyrill Kistler, whose Vorspiel to his opera Eulentspiegel (Act 11) was then played for the first time in England. There was nothing very much in it, but its inclusion shows a healthy determination to give the public something which they did not know and therefore were not already clamouring for. Very soon Mr. Wood looked nearer home for his novelties, and looked to good purpose. It was after a fortnight of this season that Mr. Robert Newman, the manager, took to advertising the complete orchestral programme day by day on the front page of The Times. This could only mean (I) that the concerts were paying, and (2) that what the orchestra played mattered to the public more than the solos and songs. At the same time he announced special nights. The advertisement of Saturday, the 24th, runs:- Monday next, Sullivan night. Tuesday next. Wagner night.. Wednesday next. Classical night. Thursday next. Gounod night. Friday next, Strauss night. So Sullivan Was the first composer to have a night to himself at the Qtieen's Hall Prome- nades. But Wagner ousted him on Septem- ber 2, and has had Monday night for his own ever since. When on the second of the classical nights Schubert's C major Symphony was given, the conductor received his first thorough dressing down in these columns. How many has he survived since with equanimity ? The several movements werc rattled through in a manner which completely obscured their beauty and rendered them almost unrecognizable to those who have heard the unsurnassed performances at the Crystal Palacc, &c. Perhaps the critic was right and, if so, he con- tributed something of value to the development of the classical nights. A week later came the first Beethoven night, on Friday, September 13. Overture. "Egmont." Ballet music. Prometheus." Concerto in E flat (" Empefor "), Pianist Mr. Frederick Dawson. Symphony No. 5 in C minor. This begins to look so much like what we know that here we may close the file. The Beethoven night was the climax of the first month of Queen's Hall Promenades, and, that achieved, all the expansion of subsequent years foDowed naturally. We are promised the best of it in the new start to be made at the Albert Hall to-mor-ow, but alas! no novelties. There is the difference. Is this a new start or just a recollection ? PROMENADE CONCERTS THE FIRST SEASON