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2017 EVERGREEN 23<br />
Few radio<br />
or television<br />
programmes<br />
achieve 1,000<br />
performances,<br />
but Friday Night<br />
is Music Night<br />
managed it<br />
without any<br />
trouble and is still<br />
going strong 45<br />
years later!<br />
Back in 1953<br />
the programme<br />
was set up to<br />
showcase the<br />
newly formed<br />
BBC Concert<br />
Orchestra,<br />
at the time<br />
one of many<br />
BBC music<br />
ensembles but<br />
the only one<br />
now left devoted to this particular<br />
genre, although regional orchestras<br />
The Aeolian Hall in<br />
London was used<br />
by the BBC for<br />
recordings after St.<br />
George’s Hall was<br />
bombed in 1943.<br />
also played lighter music, leaving<br />
the BBC Symphony Orchestra to<br />
concentrate solely on more serious<br />
works. Sadly, all the regional<br />
orchestras were disbanded in 1979<br />
which caused a furore, followed by<br />
the BBC Radio Orchestra and the<br />
BBC Northern Dance Orchestra,<br />
better-known as the NDO (see<br />
<strong>Evergreen</strong>, Summer 2012). The BBC<br />
Northern Orchestra metamorphosed<br />
into the BBC Philharmonic while<br />
the BBC Big Band is allowed to tour<br />
as a semi-independent outfit.<br />
Back in 1953 Sidney Torch<br />
was given the brief of lightening<br />
up Friday evenings. Fresh from<br />
conducting the Queen’s Hall Light