Previous entries for March 3rd can be found here: Alfred Bruneau (2019), Henry Wood (2020), and Margaret Bonds (2021), Kazimierz Serocki; Margaret Bonds (2022), and Kazimierz Serocki (2023)
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Henry Wood (3 March 1869 – 19 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of concerts known as the Proms.
Follow the Leader (Mostly)
He conducted the Proms for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. – adapted from Wikipedia
"It is not often that an English audience hisses the music it does not like, but a good third of the people at Queen's Hall last Tuesday permitted themselves that luxury after the performance of the five orchestral pieces of Schoenberg." – Ernest Newman, qtd. In Wikipedia
Conductor Henry Wood
Got up on stage and stood
Before the band for decades at the Proms;
And thus securely based
He expanded public taste,
Though now and then the public had its qualms.
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Avoidance
Jacobs describes Wood's memoirs as "vivacious in style but factually unreliable". – Wikipedia
His relationship with fact was unreliable,
And his memoirs proved creative and/or pliable;
His bio was vivacious, don’t deny it…
But even so, I won’t go out and buy it.
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