After another season of achingly politically correct Proms from the BBC, directed for the last time by Nicholas Kenyon, there’s a slim hope for a return to the glory days of Sir Henry Wood and Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Royal Albert Hall

What should be an occasion for celebration of everything English — something like Burn’s Night is for Scotland — we are instead treated to a sickly soup of multiculturalism and tributes to the European Union.

Time, I think, to remove this festival of “classical” music from the BBC and hand it to some other body that will treat it with care for its origins.

The Last Night was, true to form, hopelessly out of focus. The famous sea song medley was ruined by the addition of Celtic airs which, Kenyon never seems to spot, is totally out of place.

Ah well, if the new Director doesn’t put this right, the Proms will probably be replaced by the Notting Hill Carnival as England’s premier musical event. Time to emigrate, I think.

Reuters is reporting the death of the star Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation. He died early on Thursday after a long battle with cancer, his manager Terri Robson said.

“The great tenor Luciano Pavarotti died today at 5 a.m. at his home in Modena,” Robson said in a statement. He was 71. “The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.”

Pavarotti brought a love of opera to the masses and performed to vast stadium audiences round the world. He shot to popular fame with a stand-in appearance at Covent Garden in 1963 and had soon had critics gushing about his “big” voice.

His last public singing performance was at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006.

Jeremy Isaacs said on the BBC’s Today programme that said Luciano had a big, thrilling voice that was unmistakeable. He could sing almost anything and was a big favourite with Covent Garden audiences.

He is perhaps best known for teaming up with Spanish stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the 1990 football World Cup in Italy and introduced operatic classics to an estimated 800 million people around the globe.

Although the quality of his voice tailed off in recent years, his technique never did. His presence will be much missed.

This year’s series of Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall has been a strange affair.

Some of the concerts have been less than rivetting, leading to half-empty houses. A few of the guest orchestras have been too small for the space, sounding underpowered for no fault of their own.

Worse though, has been the behaviour of the Promenaders themselves. The legendary knowledge of those who stand in the middle of the auditorium, lending an unequalled atmosphere to the Last Night, has been called into question for the first time. It seems there is a growing tendency to break into applause between movements. Tuts and tsks can be heard from the more expensive seats around the hallowed hall.

But there is an even more woeful cause for complaint. Promenaders have been spotted lying down in the hall, some apparently asleep. Other couples were said to be shamelessly canoodling while the music played.

Sir Malcolm Sargent must be apoplectic in Valhalla.

In this year of celebrations of what would have been the 150th birthday of Sir Edward Elgar, it’s good to read that rare footage of the composer has been unearthed.

The BBC website reports, “Rare footage of Sir Edward Elgar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra is to be screened at the climax of a music festival in Powys. Some of the clips, including home movie shots of the composer at home with his dogs, are thought to have never been seen in public before.”

The hour-long film compilation was shown on June 24 at the Gregynog Festival, near Newtown, Powys in Wales.

Shots of Elgar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, playing Land of Hope and Glory, are believed to have been filmed by British Pathe news at the famous Abbey Road studios in 1929.