Opening Of The Proms When Sir Henry Wood came on to open his fiftieth season of promenade concerts on Saturday evening a vast audience rose to greet him. The Albert Hall was packed from floor to the ambulatory just under the roof, and something like the old free- masonry which used to distinguish the Proms at Queen's Hall made itself felt in the larger assembly. Sir Henry Wood conducted the whole of the first part of the concert, and handed over to his asso- ciate conductor, who during the first month will be Mr. Basil Cameron, for the shorter second part. Of the actual programme there is not much to be said. International, eclectic, and repre- sentative of the Yast field of orchestral music which the Proms alone bring under one com- prehensive view, it was a typical Saturday night's choice. All the first part was romantic -Berlioz, Wagner, Delius, Tchaikovsky, with Grieg's piano concerto for centre-piece. In this last Miss Moura Lympany was the soloist. She played splendidly if one could accept her view of the concerto. But there is something to be said against a reading which seeks to magnify it into a full-blown, virtuoso work on a large scale and something to be said for viewing it as a smaller, more lyrical expres- sion of a mind to which brilliance is a some- what alien quality. There was another concerto,, and with the performance of that too there was room for disagreement. Handel's organ concertos were not written for high-pressure reeds, but they can of course be transferred to a modern concert organ, and will in that case ask for reinforcement in the orchestral accompaniment. But the antiphony of the, Albert Hall full organ and the full orchestral brass constituted a case of assault and battery upon the ear. Dr. G. Thalben-Ball's playing is equally precise, rhythmic, and clean in phrasing, whether he roars on the Great or coos on the Choir, but he was less persuasive than usual that the organ is a really musical instrument. The general character of the orchestral playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. which takes first turn of the three orchestras engaged for the season, was of a high standard, whichi is a good augury for what is to come. OPENING OF THE PROMS FIFTIETH SEASON