An Innovation at the Proms The Arts The performance of Dont Giovanni at the Promenade Concert on August 21, which will bring the entire Glynde- bourne company to the Albert Hall. marks a new expansion of a series of concerts always noted for lively enter- prise. Promenaders have never beforc bcen* offered an entire opera and the corrlbined efforts of a cast of outstanding international celebrity. The new departure, says Mr. William Clock, the B.B.C. Director of Music, is in keeping both with tradition and with his own present policy. The high standard of performances demanded nowadays by audiences a.customed to the superlative accuracy of gramophone records makes it. Mr. Glock believes. necessary as well as desirable that the concert series is planned bearing in mind orchestras, conductors and works, so that the widest and most valuable range of music can be offered to audiences without making necessary the learning of new works during the crowded activity of the Prom season, so that music heard at the Proms is. in Mr. Glock's words. "not rehearsed but re-rehearsed ". The task is to continue Sir Henry Wood's " unique spirit of enterprise" and combine with it the higher standards which audiences now demand. Because of this policy, the Glyndebourne company is coming to the Albert Hall on the night after its own season closes, before its members break up; it would be difficult to reassemble the artists for a performance on any other evening, and while Mr. Glock hopes' that it will be possible for similar transferences in other years, the feasibility of the scheme depends upon whether or not the last opera to be seen<at Glyndebourne is as suitable as Don Giovannii for concert performance. From the point of view of musical economics, Don Giovanni will be little more costly than a normal concert in the series. After the exhaustive re- hearsal and 12 performances undertaken at Glyndebourne. the work is ready for performance except that it will be neces- sary, because of the Albert Hall's peculiar acoustics, to augment the numbers of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra engaged in the orera house Thus promenaders wilt receive a perfec- tionist performance at normal Prom pnces, and Mr. Glock's policy of maintain- ing the highest possible standards will be upheld. He regards the scheme as " a two wav traffic " plan in which the Glynde- bourne authorities have been keen to take Part because it offers the opportunity of interesting a' young, venturesome and enthusiastic audience in their work. It is possible, Mr. Glock says, for them to regard this as a long-term bargain from which profits will accrue in the future. An Innovation at the Proms Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni