BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Prom 15 – Elektra
Few works can be said to fill the Albert Hall with sound: Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder – both heard at last year’s Proms – do so, while Havergal...
Prom 14 – L’enfance du Christ
Berlioz’s ’sacred trilogy’ is at once characteristic of its composer and yet untypical of him. Its restraint and comparative modesty of resources sets it apart from the monumental works for...
Proms Chamber Music No.2 (28 July)
Fantasy, improvisation and transcription were the keynotes of this absolutely outstanding, intelligently constructed lunchtime recital, the second of the V & A Chamber Proms which also take in the opportunity...
Prom 13 – On the Transmigration of Souls
Currently the highest-profile classical composer alive today, John Adams has recently become Artist-in-Association with the BBCSO, so giving his conducting activities a regular outlet in the UK. Although composer-conductors are...
Prom 12 – Hallé Calls All Workers
Manchester resurgent and risen phoenix-like from the ashes? That’s what the spinmeisters of music, the publicity machines, would have us believe of the Hallé under Mark Elder. As usual, the...
Prom 11 – Take it away, Sir Edward Elgar!
Quite the most enjoyable of the three Blue Peter Proms I have been to. This year’s had the theme of “Magical Journeys”. Basically a travelogue through the known and the...
Prom 10 – Ruby
The organ loft was bathed in blue for part one, then mauve. Here we go again. Pointless! Nothing to do with listening to music. Could not the gold lighting be...
Prom 9 – MacMillan’s Silence
Although James Macmillan is already Composer/Conductor to the BBC Philharmonic, he could without too much exaggeration carry that title with regard to the BBC Proms. Since the sensational premiere of...
Prom 8 – Antigone Alone
One of the worst-attended Proms I have ever been to, this intriguing and certainly worthwhile rediscovery of a little known Mendelssohn work – which tied in to the overriding Proms...
Prom 7 – London Symphonies
There were no composer anniversaries commemorated in this concert. Instead, although there was a contribution to the Proms theme of Greek mythology, there was a unifying theme to the symphonies:...
Prom 6 – Celebrating Corelli
Amidst the plethora of composer-anniversaries this year (and I forgot to mention in my review of The Nation’s Favourite Prom the centenary of Aram Khachaturian’s birth), there is the 350th-birthday...
Prom 5 – Berio Tribute
The first of this year’s late-night Proms, and a welcome visit from the Northern Sinfonia and their new Music Director, Thomas Zehetmair. Well established as a violinist and, more recently,...
Proms Chamber Music No.1 (21 July)
The wind quintet – indeed all wind ensemble music – seems (pardon the inapposite pun) always to play second string to string quartets; so this opening concert of the Proms...
Prom 4 – Budapest Festival Orchestra
The culture and refinement of the Budapest Festival Orchestra is unmistakable. There are also some Slavonic tendencies. Note ’some’. Iván Fischer, usually musical to a fault, can be a tad...
Proms Chamber Music No.1 (21 July)
The wind quintet – indeed all wind ensemble music – seems (pardon the inapposite pun) always to play second string to string quartets; so this opening concert of the Proms...