BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Prom 27: 9th August 2001 – Speaking in Ibsen
Peer Gynt (pronounced “Pear Gunt”) made his triumphant debut at the Proms this week - complete. Whatever Neeme Järvi had – warned by his doctors to take it easy –...
Prom 26: 8th August 2001 – The Seasons
Haydn’s Oratorio, The Seasons, was premiered in Vienna in April 1801 to great acclaim from critics and public. The idea for the work had come to Haydn two years previously...
Prom 25: 7th August 2001 – Broken Promise
It was going to be “The Russians are coming” even after Evgeny Svetlanov cancelled – ’… but one didn’t make it’ – Repin, who promised much in Tchaikovsky, broke a...
Prom 24: 6th August 2001 – Late Night Handel
The Proms’ pastoral leaning was again in evidence with Handel’s ’pastoral masque’, surprisingly receiving its first-ever complete Proms performance.After his early visits to Italy, Handel’s desire to experience music in...
Prom 23: 6th August 2001 – Man-o’-war
Man-o’-War has two meanings - an old English name for a warship, and a dangerous sea-creature. (36-year-old Ian Wilson, from Northern Island, also points out that Manowar is a village...
Prom Chamber Music 3: 6th August 2001
The Lecture Theatre in the V & A is an excellent venue for chamber music. It resembles an abbreviated Wigmore Hall, with a steep rake of seats instead of stalls...
Prom 22: 5th August 2001 – European Invasion
For the fifth time of asking in a week, this hugely talented and committed orchestra of young musicians (23 is the maximum age) from all over Europe demonstrated at this...
Prom 21: 5th August 2001 – Nation’s Favourite
Invite passive listeners, those who iron-to-music and street-whistle, to nominate their ’favourite’ music and you get what you get. This afternoon-concert contained great music – which was great before such...
Prom 20: 4th August 2001 – Song of the Cosmos
The universe is big – very, very big - and so it is only reasonable to expect a very big work with a very big number of musicians to celebrate...
Prom 18: 3rd August 2001
This programme was clearly designed in two distinct halves. The first required acute hearing for the detailed sounds of two composers delving into the philosophical language of Paracelsus and Plato;...
Prom 17: 2nd August 2001 – ROYAL PALACE
Now Conductor Laureate of the BBC Symphony, Sir Andrew Davis made the second of two welcome BBCSO re-appearances this season in a contrasted programme which, if not more than the...
Prom 16: 1st August 2001
A quick questionnaire. Where do you stand in the Radio 3 versus Classic FM debate? Or is it perhaps a harmonious co-existence for you? Were you enthralled by the imagination...
Prom 15: 31st July 2001 – LATE-NIGHT HAYDN
Thankfully the RAH had cooled off a little by the time this late-night Prom started. The brief excerpts from Beethoven’s ballet provided a fitting ’overture’, with some particularly expressive woodwind...
Prom 14: MacRae Premiere
At 28 minutes, Stuart MacRae’s Violin Concerto is a substantial and intriguing addition to what has proved a diverse genre over the last decade. MacRae’s is not so much an...
Prom 13: 30th July 2001
It says much about the continuing success of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s partnership with Osmo Vänskä that this diverse yet thoughtfully-conceived programme was brought off with conviction - and...