BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

BBC Proms Copland and Stravinsky Credit BBC Angus Race 16
Two classic twentieth century ballet scores bookended a new American clarinet concerto receiving its European premiere for an unconventional but attractive Prom which drew a good house at the Royal...
BBC Proms RPO Petrenko Credit Mark Allan 17
In the wake of gargantuan Berlioz, the stage was reset for a less sensational event: a concise, surprisingly well attended concert from an orchestra unmistakably on the rise. A similar...
BBC Proms Pappano Conducts Berliozs ‘Requiem photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 15.08.26 18
'If,' Berlioz wrote from his sick-bed in January 1867, 'if I were threatened by the destruction of my entire works save one, I should crave mercy for the Messe des morts.' Given...
BBC Proms Gustavo Dudamel conducts the LA Philharmonic photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 11.08.26 1 1
For the second of his sold-out Prom visits this season, Gustavo Dudamel featured the concert version of Gabriela Ortiz’s ballet Revolución diamantina (Diamond Revolution, 2023). Around 42 minutes in duration,...
BBC Proms Gustavo Dudamel conducts the LA Philharmonic photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 11.08.26 1 1
Appearing at the Proms for the first time in 25 years the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought two programmes, both ending with contemporary music, which is very unusual for a major...
Salonen Conducts 20th Century Classics photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 29
While our own National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain has been visiting the Proms since the 1950s, tonight’s transatlantic combo made its first appearance in 2005. Of standard size, with...
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My third and final concert as part of the Bristol Proms weekend was in Bristol Beacon’s Lantern Hall, the chamber venue adjacent to the main hall. One work and just...
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As Nigel Short explained in his short chat with Sarah Walker from the stage, Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles was the first work his choir Tenebrae – now celebrating its...
Conductor Adam Hickox and Bournemouth Symphony at BBC Proms 2026 Bristol Beacon c Jessie Myers Soul Media
Not only Proms debuts from soloist and conductor in this matinée concert, but a debut for me at my first ever out-of-London Prom. They are something of a fixture now,...
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Thomas Ades is multi-talented, so hearing him conduct the 150 strong National Youth Orchestra was a fascinating prospect. Especially as he included a composer he loves, Liszt and his own...
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Weber’s Oberon has almost sunk without a trace and as Mark Elder explained in the Guardian, it’s ‘sprawling tale of fairyland, desert islands, pirates, crusaders and an imaginary Arabia would...
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2026 marks the 200th anniversary of Carl Maria von Weber's death in London, and of his last opera, Oberon (the premiere of which he just managed to oversee in the...
BBC Proms Rachmaninovs Second Chris Christodoulou 25
Hallé patron Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, sat in the royal box for a Prom that took a while to catch fire: hard-working but slight first half, thrilling second. Ravel's La...
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Written in 1950, Zimmermann’s Suite, which is rarely performed, uses a large percussion section to offer colour as opposed to clout. After the sparce introduction with filigrees of instrumental sound,...
Dvorak and Mendelssohn photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 16
This was a well-balanced, thoroughly musical evening, opening with a Proms first: Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Märchen-Suite, unperformed here since its belated 2001 premiere. Commissioned decades earlier by Koblenz Radio for...