BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

The Foundry … Pärt 4 … Poem of Ecstasy
The relatively conservative Austro-German focus of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s main Southbank Centre season has not always played to the strengths of its talented chief, the pale efficiency of whose Mahler...
20 August 1962 [Dillon replacing Musgrave]
This was a recreation (almost) of a Prom given on 20 August 1962 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (currently in its 75th-year). Such generosity of programming reflected the norm...
Russian National Orchestra
After Ingo Metzmacher’s brilliant recontextualisation of Mahler’s Seventh and Andrew Litton’s bold miscellany of (pre-) historic Bach, there was always a danger that the Russian National Orchestra’s return to the...
Arvo Pärt’s St John Passion
The first of two ‘Pärts’, if you like, the Proms celebrating the Estonian’s 75th-birthday with a dignified late-night performance of his “St John Passion” notable for one of the best-behaved...
Huw Watkins’s Violin Concerto
Had Edward Gardner followed the programme’s advice that the Pärt would “be followed without a break by” the Britten then an interesting and complementary contrast would have been set-up between...
LSO/Gergiev – Scriabin & Stravinsky
Following his Mahler extravaganza, Valery Gergiev returned to the Proms with the London Symphony Orchestra in a more logical pairing of works separated by a mere decade and by composers...
Julia Fischer & Milana Chernyavska
An all-Belgian programme has to be something of a rarity. Eugène Ysaÿe, once described by Carl Flesch as the "most outstanding and individual violinist I have ever heard in my...
LPO/Jurowski Julia Fischer
A Night on the Bare Mountain was played in Rimsky-Korsakov’s well-meaning if sanitised version, perfectly good and very enjoyable on its own terms (indeed, the work of a master). Vladimir...
Bach on the Orchestra/Andrew Litton
This was a veritable feast of a programme for those who like their Bach as viewed by others, and his keyboard music to be bedecked in orchestral garb.Probably one of...
Bach on the Organ/David Briggs
Given the participation of such a fine player as David Briggs, it was a pity that there was not more of an opportunity to hear other examples of ‘original’ Bach...
The Brandenburg Concertos/Gardiner
Bach Day at the Proms got underway in the best possible fashion with the Brandenburg Concertos, split between two concerts (the first two Proms Saturday Matinees of this season) rather...
Verdi Dallapiccola Bruch Schumann
It’s a testament to the enduring popularity of Max Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto that you can fill the Royal Albert Hall with a Prom including a major work by...
BBCSO/Bringuier Nelson Freire
If we count Chopin as being French – his father was a Frenchman who went to Poland – then this Prom conducted Lionel Bringuier was an all-French affair. Topped and...
Music of the Spheres
Thomas Dausgaard’s Prom-visits with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra have never lacked for innovation or ambition, though here he took these to new heights with a programme as unlikely as...
Schreker, Korngold & Mahler/Metzmacher
This concert was of especial interest in its marking Ingo Metzmacher’s final appearance as Principal Conductor of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and with a programme as ambitious as any during the...
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