BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Prom 41 – Hallé/Mark Elder with Leonard Elschenbroich, Alice Coote & Gregory Kunde – King Lear, Berceuse for Dresden, Das Lied von der Erde; Composers in Conversation: Colin Matthews
Mark Valencia writes...Tenors, those kings of the limelight, rarely take second place to anyone; but in the six songs of Das Lied von der Erde it's the alto soloist (or...
Prom 40: Britten Sinfonia/Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich and Steven Isserlis – Beethoven 8, Four Iberian Miniatures, Lieux retrouvés, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony
The Royal Albert Hall was more than two-thirds full for this peculiar programme, bookending London and UK premieres of novelties (not dissimilar in idiom) with neo-classical provocations conceived a century...
Proms Chamber Music 5: Stile Antico & Fretwork – including Shakespeare settings
Stile Antico brings a fresh, intelligent and collaborative approach to vocal polyphony. There is no conductor. In Thomas Morley’s ‘It was a Lover and his Lasse’ the twelve singers were...
Prom 39 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo – Haydn 34 & Mahler 5 – Guy Johnston gives premiere of Falling in the Fire; Composers in Conversation: Charlotte Bray
This Prom continued the season’s emphasis on the cello with a first hearing for Falling in the Fire (2016) by Charlotte Bray. Inspired by carnage wrought on the ancient city...
Proms at … Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe – Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen, including music for The Tempest [the 8 o’clock sitting]
The candle-lit interior of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse provided the perfect backdrop for this Shakespeare-inspired Prom featuring the ravishing music of Henry Purcell and his contemporaries John Blow and Matthew...
Prom 38: John Wilson Orchestra with Louise Dearman, Matthew Ford & Julian Ovenden – George and Ira Gershwin Rediscovered
While George Gershwin is the headline-grabbing name in this, the annual Proms appearance by John Wilson’s Orchestra, he is but one of five composers jostling for space in a concert...
Proms at … Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe – Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen, including music for The Tempest [the 3 o’clock sitting]
There could be no greater contrast in Proms terms than the size of the Royal Albert Hall as compared to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, which is a twentieth of the...
Prom 37: BBCNOW/Thomas Søndergård – Walton’s Partita, Webern’s Passacaglia & Brahms 4 – Paul Watkins gives premiere of Huw Watkins’s Cello Concerto
The juxtaposition of Webern’s Passacaglia with Brahms’s example (the Finale of Symphony 4) has been promulgated at the Proms at least twice before – from the CBSO and Sakari Oramo...
Prom 36: Jamie Cullum with The Heritage Orchestra and Jules Buckley… Eska, Coco, Remi Harris, Dakhla Brass…
Six years on from his debut at these concerts, Jamie Cullum returned to the Proms for this late-night event which played to his strengths as pianist, singer, songwriter and all-round...
Prom 35: BBCNOW/Thomas Søndergård – Bartók’s Dance Suite & Dvořák 7 – Tai Murray gives premiere of Malcolm Hayes’s Violin Concerto
The earlier of this evening’s two Proms featured what may prove the most singular among this year’s commissions. Interesting, too, it should come from Malcolm Hayes – who, now in...
Prom 34 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo – Dutilleux, HK Gruber, Beethoven’s Fifth – Håkan Hardenberger Busking
During the Proms last year, Sakari Oramo conjured an inspired and dancing Beethoven 7. In Beethoven’s Fifth he went for pace but was never glib, and if the lack of...
Prom 33: BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena – Mark Simpson’s Israfel, Max’s Sir Charles his Pavan & Elgar 1 – Johannes Moser plays Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain
For the last of its six Proms this season, the BBC Philharmonic, here with Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena, opened with Mark Simpson’s Israfel (first heard in Glasgow in April 2015),...
Prom 32: Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen – A Survivor from Warsaw, The Shadows of Time, Mahler 1
There was no Philharmonia Orchestra Prom in 2014 but it now looks as if that was just a blip, notwithstanding Esa-Pekka Salonen’s growing prominence as a composer. While his own...
Proms Chamber Music 4: Håkan Hardenberger, HK Gruber … Kurt Weill, Kurt Schwertsik…
This decidedly relaxed and enjoyable Proms Chamber Music hour opened with a journey encapsulated in Russia’s first satellite: Sputnik. Composed for the opening of Malmö’s new concert hall last year...
Prom 31: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard – Scythian Suite & The Rite of Spring – Kirill Gerstein plays Tchaikovsky
Thomas Dausgaard is Chief Conductor designate of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, to succeed Donald Runnicles. Dausgaard has a huge repertoire and an engaging stage presence.Scythian Suite (1915) has a...
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