BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Theatrum Bestiarum
This Prom – as enterprising as it was and, regrettably, poorly attended – brought one of the season's most significant commissions. Now established among the most important German composers of...
The Vision of St Augustine
The interval in this Prom separated a work whose theme is the relationship between the individual and the infinite and a work that articulates the relationship between the individual and...
Proms Chamber Music – 2 (Leila Josefowicz)
For the second Proms Chamber Music concert, the soloist from the Royal Albert Hall’s Saturday night sell-out returned, again in her shimmering turquoise skirt and sky-blue top (perhaps apt for...
The Dream of Gerontius
The start did not auger well, with unison phrases at the commencement of the Prelude being less than unanimous, but this performance gained in stature and finally ensured one's appreciation...
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
A sea-centred Prom – one that brought the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Gerard Schwarz in a programme such as might have hailed from the Sargent era. The Hebrides was...
Blue Peter
So how do you get a group of youngsters into the Albert Hall on a Saturday morning without promising them Christina Aguilera? Serve up a feast of favourite classics and...
Philharmonia Orchestra
Surely no one would blame Londoners for staying at home and away from the incessant travel risks. Well, this conventional programme attracted a huge audience, a sell-out for Mozart and...
A Scotch Bestiary
A curious concert, following another unsettling day for Londoners, which perhaps explained a smaller than expected audience in the Royal Albert Hall. The programming was curious too – in effect...
Gardiner Haydn
This well-attended late-night Prom included the remarkably affective Motet “Insanae et vanae curae”, written in 1784 but revised eleven years later with a different text, and the ‘Nelson’ Mass, so-called...
Turbulent Landscapes
Although resident in the United States for over three decades now, Thea Musgrave has retained a certain presence in British musical life – not least at the Proms, where her...
Michael Berkeley Premiere / A London Symphony
Michael Berkeley has written a score that is more a symphony than a concerto. Although there is much variety of timbre in the virtuoso passages, there is also an overriding...
Die Walküre
The Proms presentation of Wagner's Ring cycle over four seasons continued with the 'First Day' of the tetralogy. Being at once the most humanly involving instalment, in which actions andtheir...
Proms Chamber Music – 1 (Sir Thomas Allen)
Ten years since Proms Chamber Music started, the success has been rewarded with a move from the enclosed confines of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Lecture Theatre to the bright,...
The Fairy Queen
Prom 3 offered a chance to hear Purcell’s instrumental and vocal music for “The Fairy Queen” – an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – separated from its theatrical...
Gilbert & Sullivan – Mackerras
Sir Charles Mackerras’s relationship with the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan has been a long and profitable one. Although he is mainly celebrated for his tireless promotion of Czech music,...