BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

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Prom 60: San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas (1) – Schoenberg’s Theme and Variations & Mahler 1 – Jeremy Denk plays Henry Cowell’s Piano Concerto
It takes a brawny pair of forearms to play Henry Cowell’s Piano Concerto, less to support the fingers while they pummel the keys than to flatten whole octaves in a...
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Prom 59: Life Story Prom presented by Sir David Attenborough, with music by Murray Gold played by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Jeremy Holland-Smith
It is some seventeen years since television-branded Proms entered the annual Royal Albert Hall series: the first Blue Peter Prom was back in 1998. Since then drama (Doctor Who and...
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Prom 58: Sakari Oramo conducts Sibelius’s En saga and Kullervo [Johanna Rusanen-Kartano, Waltteri Torikka, Polytech Choir, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra]
For a conductor who has been associated (and not merely through nationality) with the music of Sibelius throughout his career, it made sense that Sakari Oramo conduct a Prom devoted...
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PSM4: London Sinfonietta/Thierry Fischer with Michael Cox and Mark van de Wiel – Pierre Boulez, Helen Grime and Christian Mason
The last of this season’s Proms Saturday Matinees continued from the first with its tribute to Pierre Boulez in his 90th-birthday year; in the company of the London Sinfonietta, which...
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Prom 57: Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Bernard Haitink with Maria João Pires – C-major Schubert (Italian Style Overture & Great Symphony) and A-major Mozart (Piano Concerto K488)
In these three works of contrasted style and scale, the celebrated Chamber Orchestra of Europe forged a consistent approach by bringing out much of the inner detail of the music...
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Prom 56: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Litton – world premieres of Ørjan Matre’s preSage and Alissa Firsova’s Bergen’s Bonfire, The Rite of Spring – Alina Ibragimova plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto; Firsova Composer Portrait
If you miss the ferry, as the touring Bergen Philharmonic did, and that in turn loses the planned connection, then you are bound to be late at the Royal Albert...
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Prom 55: SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg/François-Xavier Roth – Boulez’s explosante-fixe, Ligeti’s Lontano and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra
A first and a last, as François-Xavier Roth told the audience after this Prom. The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg will be celebrating its 70th-birthday next year, but it...
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Prom 54: BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner – Britten & Janáček and the premiere of Raymond Yiu’s Symphony – Emily Beynon plays Nielsen’s Flute Concerto
The 'Symphony' in different guises, this Prom opened with Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem (1940) given maximum force and loudness at its outset, Edward Gardner maybe giving too much away too...
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Prom 53: Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen – Miraculous Mandarin and Orango – David Fray plays Mozart K491
Notable by its absence in 2014 (only its third non-Prom-year since it first appeared in this festival in 1962: 1965 and 1997 were the other two), the Philharmonia Orchestra roared...
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PCM6: Jeremy Denk plays Piano Sonatas by Scriabin (Black Mass), Bartók and Beethoven (Opus 111)
A friend from the States, a very keen Jeremy Denk fan, told me (with a slight warning inflection) that this pianist belongs firmly to the tradition of American classical-music educative...
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Prom 52: Thierry Escaich Organ Recital
As time goes by, one eventually learns to be grateful for all mercies, so if it appears ungracious to criticise what I believe is the first-ever complete evening Prom given...
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Prom 51: Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (2) – Haydn 90, Barber Second Essay, Shostakovich 10
Only its eighth appearance at the Proms (of which I’ve made five), the second of this season’s Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concerts under music director Andris Nelsons – following hard on...
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Prom 50: András Schiff plays J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations
Any doubt about the suitability of the Royal Albert Hall for a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations vanished with the opening ‘Aria’, which served as a delightfully cool...
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Prom 49: Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (1) – Mahler 6 – Håkan Hardenberger plays Brett Dean’s Dramatis personae
Welcome back! Following the dearth of visiting US orchestras to the Proms in recent years, this Boston Symphony Orchestra visit, with its new music director Andris Nelsons at the helm,...
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Prom 48: J. S. Bach – Mass in G minor, Brandenburg Concerto No.2, Magnificat – BBC Singers, Academy of Ancient Music/David Hill
This late-night Bach Prom could have been designed to refute recent media reports of intimidating or poorly-behaved, noisy audiences and our diminishing powers of concentration hastened by electronic gadget dependency....