By Hugh Robertson

This February, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra returns to Sydney Town Hall for a week of fun and engaging concerts, including a lunchtime concert, a relaxed concert for families and people with sensory issues, a Valentine’s Day special featuring some of the most romantic music ever written, and QuizMaestro, a unique event that is part concert, part pub trivia!

With all four concerts developed and led by Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey, this breadth of programming is a throwback to an especially fun and exciting chapter in the Orchestra’s history – the Proms concerts of the 1960s and 70s. But the Proms are just one chapter in the rich history of the Orchestra at Sydney Town Hall, which was our main performance venue from our establishment in 1932 until the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973.

As the centre of Sydney’s cultural and civic life, it was only fitting that it should serve as the home for the city’s orchestra, and over our first 40 years it saw countless memorable performances by some of the world’s greatest artists, including Otto Klemperer, Malcolm Sargent, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Rafael Kubelik, Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline du Pre, Georg Szell, Artur Schnabel, Arthur Rubinstein, Eugene Ormandy, Sir John Barbirolli, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and many more.

The period immediately following World War II was especially memorable: with many great music cities in Europe damaged and recovering, a months-long tour of laid-back, sunny Australia was especially appealing.

Perhaps the best-known musical event to be held at Town Hall were the Promenade concerts – known as ‘the Proms’ – which ran from 1965-1977. The brainchild of conductor and educator John Hopkins, the Proms were a revolution in Australian classical music; every ticket was the same price, the chairs were removed from the hall with audiences encouraged to bring bean bags, and the music presented was deliberately eclectic, with traditional classical repertoire presented alongside brand-new contemporary works that pushed the envelope in many ways.

More than anything, the Proms democratised music in Sydney, and made classical concerts more welcoming and accessible than ever before, encouraging younger and more diverse audiences.

The spirit of the Proms lives on in these February concerts: through the venue of course, and through Benjamin Northey, who was a student of John Hopkins’ at the University of Melbourne, and who credits Hopkins with mentoring him to become a conductor in the first place.

‘This is the stuff of legend,’ says Northey, excitedly. ‘And this is so special to me, because my teacher, John Hopkins, established that series and he conducted most of the concerts.

‘They were characterized by a more informal presentation of the Orchestra: people brought their bean bags and they cleared out the chairs in the Town Hall. It was just the Sixties, I suppose – people were much more relaxed.

‘And that was the idea of this series [in 2025], the informality. And people talk about that series now. They still remember – that was where they fell in love with the Orchestra. So if we can achieve that again, that would be amazing.’