Orchestral Occasions Yesterdav the London Symphony Orchestra celebrated the fortieth anniver- sary of its foundation; to-day SIR HENRY WOOD opens the fiftieth season of his Promenade Concerts. The two celebra- tions together attest the consolidation of a tradition of orchestral music in London. From London the influence of the two organizationS has radiated through the country, that of the L.S.O. by way of the steady work it has done at the great provincial festivals, that of the Proms by way of the wire- less transmission which began in 1927 when the B.B.C. took over responsibility for their financial stability. The seal has now been set on that responsibility by the B.B.C.'s final acceptance of a trusteeship for the future of the concerts which SIR HENRY WOOD handed over: to the Corpora- tion 6n Mondav of this week. The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts will be con- tinued in any foreseeable future and will, if the jubilee fund which bears his name has the success it deserves, be housed one day in the not too distant future in the Henry Wood Concert Hall. When SIR HENRY WOOD celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday last March his per- sonal share in the splendid achievement of creating a musical instituLion of such value to the nation and the astonishing feat of. haying conducted for forty-nine consecutive seasons were rightly ac- claimed. Now the KING has expressed the nation's congratulations by conferring on him the Companionship of Honour, and they will be renewed vocally when he walks on to the rostrum of the Albert Hall to-night. But the jubilee is also the moment to note the more impersonal causes of vitality in the institution of the Promenade Concerts. One-is the con- sistency of the-musical policy; another is the adaptability of its application, so that public taste has been caught, retained, and developed. The change as a result of fifty years' education can be gauged by the fact that, when the actual jubilee comes to be celebrated on August 10, the original pro- gramme of 1895 cannot be played to the 1944 audience, as the actual programme of the London Symphony Orchestra's first concert, conducted by HANS RICHTER in 1904, was reproduced last night under SIR ADRIAN BOULT. Wyhile the L.S.O., beginning as an ex- periment in orchestral self-government, has continued in the path it designed for itself, which differed from and is indeed complementary to that pursued by the Proms, the Proms have continuously evotved.. They constitute one more in- stance of a British institution, initiated bv the vision and enterprise of one or two men (the name of ROBERT NEWVXAN must not be forgotten); growing in strength and influence by an evolutionary process of gradual change, until the time arrives for it to pass into the control of some public body. SIR HENRY WNOOD has given a birthday present to the nation, and the nation has shown and will continue to show its gratitude. Orchestral Occasions