BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

BBC Proms RNSO Sondergard RAH 030826 0302
BBC Proms 2026 – Rachmaninov Paganini Variations, Knussen Flourish with Fireworks Shostakovich Symphony No 11 – Kirill Gerstein, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Thomas Sondergard
If there was a theme to the first half of tonight's Prom, it was patience: both of the pieces before the interval needed a little time to find their feet....
Kavakos Plays Tchaikovsky photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 13
BBC Proms 2026 – Kavakos plays Tchaikovsky
The pull of a star soloist and popular concerto ensured a near-full Royal Albert Hall on this hot summer Sunday evening, the hall having already hosted a notable morning matinee (the...
BBC Proms From the Alps to the Auvergne photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 27.07.26 25
BBC Proms 2026 – From the Alps to the Auvergne – Tjøgersen, Canteloube and Strauss
This Prom’s survey of the natural world in all its splendour had a decidedly mountainous field of vision, taking us ‘from the Alps to the Auvergne’ – although actually the...
Poulenc and Adams photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 10
BBC Proms 2026 – CBSO/Yamada – Poulenc and Adams
This was a concert of two halves, linked most plausibly by both composers’ tendency to ‘borrow’ material and make it new. Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, written for the BBC Third Programme in 1947,...
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BBC Proms 2026 – John Wilson conducts Respighi’s Roman Trilogy
A virtually full house reflected John Wilson’s special status at the Proms even if the Royal Albert Hall audience likes him best as the man who extended the concept of...
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BBC Proms 2026 – Afterlife: Visions of the Beyond
A Prom probing life’s ultimate mysteries comes as something of a surprise in 2026. With 12.5 per cent of this season’s concerts objectively classifiable as non-classical entertainment—to say nothing of...
BBC Proms Mahlers Tragic Sixth photocredit BBC Mark Allan 22.07.26 17
BBC Proms 2026 – Mahler’s Tragic Sixth BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo
Perhaps serendipity or perhaps meticulous planning, the midweek main concerts this week form a thematic trio. Last night Richard Strauss’s musical evocation of Nietzsche’s Superman, Also sprach Zarathustra (ending, enigmatically),...
Late Night Baroque photocredit Chris Christodoulou 7
BBC Proms 2026 – Late Night Baroque– Jupiter Ensemble, Thomas Dunford and Laurence Kilsby
Another Proms season, another debut from a French-based group. Just like last year’s opening weekend morning debut from Théotime Langlois de Swarte and his Le Consort this first-week visitor was...
Beethoven 9 Credit Chris Christodoulou 18
BBC Proms 2026 – Beethoven Nine – BBC Phil/Noseda. Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths/Abel Selaocoe
An oddly balanced programme in which traditions old and new competed for attention and meaning. Then again, perhaps the full house will be seen to have justified the mix. The...
BBC Proms Bolero photocredit BBC Chris Christodoulou 19.06.26 14
Boléro: Rhythms of Spain
The Spanish National Orchestra makes its Proms debut under Chief Conductor David Afkham, bringing with it a set of heat-soaked musical postcards. Spanish guitar phenomenon Rafael Aguirre joins the ensemble...
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BBC Proms 2026 – Prog Rock – A Fanfare for the Common Man
Two Proms this week opened with the same piece, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's arrangement of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, but that's where the similarity ended. It's a welcome...
First Night of the Proms Credit Chris Christodoulou BBC 11
BBC Proms 2026 – The First Night
Copland's Fanfare segued straight into Gershwin's An American in Paris, an unlikely but effective pairing that opened this year's semiquincentennial with real swagger. Philip Cobb's trumpet solo, muffled by a beret...
John Wilson 12.09.25 Credit Chris Christodoulou 13
Aspects of Love @ the BBC Proms
Reportedly one of the first concerts to sell out this year, this Prom will not have disappointed John Wilson’s admirers. A pity so many of them had risen from sickbeds...
BBC Proms Rachmaninovs Second Symphony photo credit BBC Andy Paradise 14
Boulanger, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov @ the BBC Proms
The stage layout gave a clue to the sound-world of the evening: violas seated to the right of the conductor, cellos and basses to the left. This arrangement allowed the...
BBC Proms Avi Avital Between Worlds photo credit BBC Sisi Burn 25
Avi Avital – Between Worlds @ the BBC Proms
Perforce – because of the tube strikes – to listen to this concert live on Radio 3, rather than be present in the hall, having returned home after the earlier...