h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I loved reading this - your enthusiasm just floods out when you write about the proms. I love to watch them on TV, but I'll certainly attend one day.

I'm amazed that so many of those great performers in 1969 are still around - those conductors go on for ever, don't they?

I have to know how du Pre handled the broken string. Did she stop there and then and refit it?

I agree with what Icy said.

Icy. She left the stage to refit the string while Barenboim sat on the steps and chatted with a few people, both in the orchestra and in the stalls behind, where I was sat

Sadly conductors (and performers) don't go on for ever. Some of today's musical elder statesmen like Sir Colin Davis were at a relatively early stage in their career, but from that same 1969 season, of the conductors alone we have subsequently lost Rudolf Schwarz, Charles Groves, Alexander Gibson, John Barbirolli, Adrian Boult, Malcolm Arnold, Jascha Horenstein, Edward Downes, Reginald Goodall, Antal Dorati, Vaclav Neumann and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt

Oh, is it that many? Many of them went on into the 70s/80s and beyond, though, didn't they?