BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

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Proms at … Battersea Arts Centre
Take three stages in a resurrected venue, brazen in its shabby chic state with a nearly-completed organ restoration. Add five composer/performers and the might of the BBC, let alone the...
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Prom 11: 1969: The Sound of a Summer
People wore flowers in their hair and there were Paisley shirts and loon pants in the auditorium but more people wore twenty-first-century sportswear and trainers. This Prom was 1969 –...
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Prom 35 preview: Martyn Brabbins introduces Pictured Within: Birthday Variations for M. C. B. [August 13 @ 7 p.m.]
About three years ago, my friend and manager, Susie McLeod encouraged me to come up with a suitable and sizeable project to mark my suitably sizeable 60th birthday.Having conducted hundreds...
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Prom 10: Public Service Broadcasting – The Race for Space
Despite the heat, which may have put off passing audiences at the earlier Prom (No.9), this year’s first Late Night was rammed. I may have been one of the laggards...
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Prom 9: BBC National Orchestra of Wales – Markus Stenz conducts Till Eulenspiegel & Brahms 1 – Jeroen Berwaerts & Håkan Hardenberger give UK premiere of Tobias Broström’s Nigredo – Dark Night of the Soul
Improbable as it looks on paper, Richard Strauss and Brahms constituted the livelier outer panels of a triptych in which Tobias Broström’s two-trumpet Concerto formed the heart of darkness. Its...
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Prom 8: BBC Symphony Orchestra – Peter Eötvös conducts Faune, Dance Suite & Firebird – Isabelle Faust gives UK premiere of Eötvös’s Alhambra
Reviewed from live BBC Radio 3 broadcast... Although I had a man present in the Albert Hall, this was such a good concert I just had to jump on the...
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Prom 7: BBC Philharmonic – Omer Meir Wellber conducts Ben-Haim, Schoenberg & Schumann – Yeol Eum Son plays Mozart Piano Concerto K450
In his debut appearance at the Proms – as Chief Conductor designate of the BBC Philharmonic – Omer Meir Wellber ranged over three centuries’ worth of music with four bold...
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Prom 6: Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music and The Juilliard School – Edward Gardner conducts Metacosmos & The Rite of Spring – James Ehnes plays Britten’s Violin Concerto
An ensemble of gifted students from London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Julliard School. From the hot summer’s day outside – there were deck-chairs in Hyde Park –...
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Proms at … Cadogan Hall/Proms Chamber Music 1: VOCES8
Interspersing some familiar choral works oft-heard in concerts or cathedral or church services and choral evensongs with snatches of the unfamiliar and two works by contemporary composers was a great...
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Prom 5: CBeebies: A Musical Trip to the Moon [second voyage]
The CBeebies joined in the Proms celebrations of the fiftieth-anniversary of the first manned mission to land on the Moon with their own trip to it, including a brief diversion...
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Prom 4: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Kirill Karabits – Short Ride … The Planets – Nemanja Radulović plays Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto
Gustav Holst’s inspiration in writing The Planets may have been as much astrology as it was astronomy but it was the (too?) obvious work for the Proms celebration of the...
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Prom 3: CBeebies: A Musical Trip to the Moon
Oh, what fun! From the choir’s splendid “Welcome to the CBeebies Prom” to an appeal to the Go Jetters to assist in getting the CBeebies’ rocket back to Earth, this...
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Prom 2: Bamberg Symphony – Jakub Hrůša conducts Smetana’s Má vlast – Joshua Bell plays Dvořák’s Violin Concerto
This was a Prom of two halves – possibly of many smaller parts if one counts clapping between most movements of Má vlast. It is a brave promoter that starts...
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First Night of the BBC Proms 2019 – Karina Canellakis conducts BBC Singers, Symphony Chorus & Symphony Orchestra – Zosha Di Castri commission, Dvořák’s Golden Spinning Wheel, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass
As old certainties fade the Last Night of the Proms has assumed a unique role in national life, albeit one that would have perplexed Henry Wood given that its ‘traditional’...
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Lost in the Canyons of the Stars – Alan Davey’s Classical Source Blog – BBC Proms 2019 takes-off today, July 19
Today we start the 125th Proms season. One of the many great things about the Proms is its audience, a mixture of different ages and backgrounds, with open minds ready...