15 September 2001

Barber replaces Britannia

Perfected by the likes of Malcolm Sargent and Andrew Davis, the conductor’s Last Night speech usually provides the chance to indulge in a few witticisms and rouse the Prommers into a state of even greater patriotic excitement.

For Leonard Slatkin (above) in

2001, the task was very different. Coming just four days after the

9/11 terrorist attacks, the occasion required a change of tone, not just in the speech but in the choice of music too. Out went ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and ‘Rule Britannia’; in came Barber’s Adagio, Negro Spirituals from Tippett’s A Child of

Our Time and the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. ‘We felt it was vital to respond to people’s mood at this sombre and difficult hour,’ explained Proms controller Nicholas Kenyon, ‘and at the same time to show that music can affirm our shared humanity.’