BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Prom 49: Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard
No sooner had I reviewed John Wilson’s Philharmonia Orchestra Yeomen of the Guard, at the Royal Festival Hall, than another was announced for the Proms. The Proms has a fine...
Prom 48: Der Freischütz, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Manfred Symphony
The supernatural loomed large in this London Philharmonic Prom, vividly so in a full-on performance of the Overture to Der Freischütz that condensed all the salient points of the opera....
PSM4: Goehr, Knussen, Bainbridge
The last of this season’s Proms Saturday Matinees brought a further concert of British music, on this occasion by three composers who are celebrating major birthdays over the course of...
Prom 47: John Cage Centenary Concert
The John Cage centenary this September was likely to galvanize attention in musical circles, and the BBC has responded with a wealth of events – the centrepiece being this Prom...
Prom 46: Andrew Manze conducts Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies 4, 5 & 6
Neglected works of the British musical renaissance have been a key feature of Roger Wright’s Proms seasons, at long last given their chance to fail as sceptics might put it.Ralph...
Prom 45: Marin Alsop & São Paulo SO – New World Symphony, Mômoprecóce/Nelson Freire
Maybe the Fanfares should have opened this 'from the Americas' Prom, a brassy male/female self-welcome to the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. As it was the sullen opening bars of Dvořák’s...
Prom 44: Ligeti, Berio, Xenakis, Harvey & Andriessen … 4’33” & Live remix
This fascinating and invigorating late-night Prom from the London Sinfonietta had something of a ‘greatest hits’ feel to it, with audience participation at the end in the form of a...
Prom 43: Charles Dutoit conducts Delius, Saint-Saëns & Tchaikovsky
The Proms season here moved from one capital city to another. The First Night regaled us with the cries of street vendors in Elgar’s Cockaigne, a celebration of London. This...
Prom 42: Susanna Mälkki conducts Prokofiev, Neuwirth & Bartók
The Philharmonia Orchestra often dances on the surface of a piece, favouring crisp textures to the rich cream of a Germanic group. Susanna Mälkki employed this to lovely effect in...
PCM5: Nicola Benedetti, Leonard Elschenbroich & Alexei Grynyuk
The second of three appearances from Nicola Benedetti at this year’s Proms began with the Bach, a towering milestone in the violin repertoire, but one which here was made to...
Prom 41: Saraste conducts Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder
The Proms triple-whammy over the weekend of choral blockbusters was rounded off by Schoenberg’s vastly scored Gurrelieder (or, as printed on the title page, “Gurre-Lieder”), one of the deepest exhalations...
Prom 40: National Youth Wind Orchestra & National Youth Brass Band – of Great Britain
The Proms mini-season focussing on the nation’s youth orchestras and ensembles culminated with a judiciously planned matinee double-bill which provided showcases of equal effectiveness for the wind orchestra and the...
Prom 39: Thierry Fischer conducts Berlioz’s Requiem (Grande Messe des morts)
BBC Proms 2012 includes just two works by Berlioz, but both are monumental: Les Troyens and Grande Messe des morts. Berlioz was not alone in writing public work on a...
PSM3: Finnissy, Ferneyhough, Birtwistle & Elias
The Proms Saturday Matinees at Cadogan Hall are now a well-established feature of the season, providing a venue for chamber groups and ensembles that might not otherwise be heard to...
Prom 38: National Youth Jazz Orchestra
Having shared its previous appearances at these concerts in 1988 and 2000, it was only fitting that the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (now in its 48th year) be allotted a...
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