BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Handel, Porpora, Telemann & Vivaldi
One of the greatest strengths of the BBC Proms is its ceaseless power to surprise and captivate, breathing magic into the most ordinary-looking of concert programmes. This will not be...
Paul Lewis Beethoven (4) [RSNO/Denève]
Things got off to a cracking start with a performance of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture that was bawdy, gaudy, thoughtful, beautiful, and great fun; Stéphane Denève directing an extrovert account...
Le Poème Harmonique
I’m surprised how strongly I object to being encouraged (this time by the BBC Radio 3 presenter Catherine Bott) to let the music just wash over me. It was the...
Sir Henry Wood (continued)
It was more than Sir Henry Wood day, it was the end of a Sir Henry Wood four days, starting with his extravagant orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition,...
Last Night of the Proms 1910
The idea of presenting the Last Night of the Proms as played in 1910 as a tribute to (Sir) Henry Wood was an interesting one, the first of two such...
Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle (2)
Simon Rattle's appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker at the Proms have drawn attention to a partnership often tentative in interpretative terms. Following their concert of Beethoven and Mahler, this second-night programme...
Ithaca … Hymn to Cybele … Dum transisset
The final Proms Saturday Matinee of the season brought together six living composers, five of whom were present and who indeed were themselves just five of at least twenty composers...
Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle (1)
With this particular programme and one of the world's leading orchestras and its much-loved Chief Conductor expectations inevitably ran high. Had this been politics rather than music, the spinmeisters would...
Three 300-year-old composers
900 years’ worth of birthdays were collated together in this late-night gem, which somehow worked after the onslaught of just an hour previously as Sir Henry Wood’s sets of pounded...
Henry Wood’s Pictures at an Exhibition
An eclectic and attractive programme covering several centuries of music – from Frenchman Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) to Argentinean Martin Matalon (born 1958).A military drum shared the platform with François-Xavier Roth,...
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
A renowned figure in Germany, Scandinavia and North America, Herbert Blomstedt (born 1927) has never achieved comparable recognition in the UK, if only because he has not enjoyed a lasting...
Hänsel und Gretel – Glyndebourne
The Glyndebourne showcase at the BBC Proms is always an anticipated event and a well-attended concert, though there were perhaps fewer children in the audience than one might have anticipated....
Family Prom
A Family Prom would have to be something to appeal to all ages, relatively short pieces in fairly easy musical styles. Recent years have seen popular innovations at the BBC...
Children’s Prom
There was a sizeable audience for this morning “Children’s Prom”, with hordes of enthusiastic parents eager to introduce their offspring, many just babes in arms, to music spanning almost five...
Lars Vogt – Janáček & Schubert
Are our accepted notions of time simply an illusion? It is a strange reality that a programme lasting under an hour can create the sensation of having taken far, far...
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