BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

PCM 1: Fatuous Façade or No More Nonsense Please Edith
Jacques Ibert is one of those unsung composers. Apart from the wacky Divertissement, which was commissioned for the BBC Third Programme, and the saxophone concerto – both getting occasional airings...
Prom 2: In (nearly) the Beginning
Always a good place to start (indeed Franz Welser-Möst’s opening concerts as The Cleveland Orchestra’s Music Director this coming September are of this very work), the Proms chose the second...
Opening Night: Spanish Fiesta & Pagan Feast
This electrifying performance of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast certainly ensured that the composer’s centenary was marked – and the 108th Proms season launched – in considerable style.If the first half of...
Leonard Slatkin introduces his concerts in Proms 2002
This week marks the second year in which I will be leading the BBC Symphony in the opening and closing of the Proms. Each of my programs has a special...
Proms 2002 – A personal introduction by the editor
“The sky’s the limit,” said Nicholas Kenyon, Proms supremo, when he launched the 2002 season of concerts back in April. Now that these events are just around the corner, the...
Prom 73: The Last Night – “Dignity in Distress” (1)
There has been a great deal of discussion and, indeed, controversy about The Last Night of the Proms this year. If you were to go to the BBC Radio 3...
Prom 73: The Last Night – “Dignity in Distress” (2)
As Leonard Slatkin reiterated from the Royal Albert Hall stage on the night, the Last Night, this was not the evening wanted by anyone. Yes, he knew as well as...
Prom 72: 14th September 2001 – Verdi Requiem
“May God have mercy”. The words of Daniele Gatti before he raised his baton to conduct this performance of Verdi’s masterpiece; at once, a timely and fitting tribute to the...
Prom 71: 13th September 2001 – The Rose Lake
For their Prom appearance this season, Sir Colin Davis and the LSO chose a programme of subtle contrasts. Unique in his output for its non-Finnish mythology as it may be,...
Prom 70: 12th September 2001 – Paris 2
Another offering from the polished and committed Paris Orchestra, with the stylish, always controlled conducting of Christoph Eschenbach; and, as with Prom 68, a work - The Rite of Spring...
Prom 69: 11th September 2001 – Percussion old and new
This late-night percussion Prom took on a different complexion in the light of events across the Atlantic, the least of which was the almost 30-minute delay to the starting time....
Prom 68: 11th September 2001 – Paris 1
The line between civilisation and barbarism, life and death is very narrow. We live in an age when we hide from death, when it is shut away in hospitals, beneath...
Prom 67: 10th September – Goehr Premiere
Forty years ago, Alexander Goehr received his first Proms performance, and it may well be possible to trace his musical development over the eleven works performed since then. Back in...
Proms Chamber Music No.8: 10th September 2001
A lunchtime concert given by representatives of Radio 3’s "New Generation Artists". Predictably a concert characterised by enthusiasm and freshness, if not the last degree of finish.Late Schubert is more...
Prom 66: 9th September 2001 – Beethoven 9
This concert devoted to Beethoven was always going to be something of a ’feel-good’ Prom. Beethoven’s ability to speak to the soul, and his overcoming of insurmountable obstacles - his...
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