BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
Prom 37: Mark Elder conducts Elgar’s The Apostles
The Apostles is an ideal work for the Proms, not just because it is rarely performed but because it suits the Royal Albert Hall. And this deeply moving performance was...
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Prom 36: Glamorous Night: A Celebration of Ivor Novello
One thing that this late-night Prom proved was how easy it is to forget what the British once expected from a musical, before America started ruling the roost with shows...
Prom 35: Storgårds conducts Sibelius, Delius, Grieg & Nørgård
It may have commenced at 6.30 but that does not necessarily make it an early-evening Prom: the present concert finishing almost three hours later, in what proved to be an...
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Prom 34: Bychkov conducts Unfinished Symphony, Battlefield Concerto & Ein Heldenleben
This Prom turned out to be a significant concert for Semyon Bychkov, whose close relationship with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was celebrated with a unique honour, the conferring on Bychkov...
Prom 33: Juanjo Mena conducts Wagner, MacMillan & Bruckner
The BBC Philharmonic and its newish Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena consolidated their considerable form in the penultimate of the orchestra’s four Proms. There is no doubt that the Philharmonic is...
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Prom 32: Leonard Bernstein’s Mass
In a word: superb. This was a quite stunning presentation of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dances’, created at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to open...
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PCM4: Jennifer Pike, Nicolas Altstaedt & Igor Levit – Debussy & Ravel
The Proms Chamber Music series is marking the 150th-anniversary of Debussy’s birth with performances of his major instrumental works. Here was a chance to enjoy the sonatas for violin and...
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Prom 31: Donald Runnicles, BBCSSO & NYO of Scotland, Nicola Benedetti
So, the Loch Ness Monster is a tuba! Thea Musgrave has composed an inventive, sometimes witty, 11-minute piece that begins in murky depths. One senses a leviathan approaching, shoals of...
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Prom 30: Flame … The Angry Planet
If I’d thought that the NYO’s 165 players the previous evening had filled the Royal Albert Hall my illusions were shattered at this afternoon prom with 550 choral members –...