BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

BBC Radio 3 World Routes Academy
It was simply the word “Iraq” in Ilham Al Madfai’s introduction to his first song “Khuttar” that caused the first whoops and cheers from the well-heeled crowd, predominantly Iraqi exiles....
European Union Youth Orchestra
The European Union Youth Orchestra arrived without the indisposed Sir Colin Davis. In his stead Matthias Bamert was a steady pair of hands, and rather more in the Berlioz, but...
Musica ad Rhenum – Some of the Bachs
The Amsterdam-based Musica ad Rhenum gave sparkling performances of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and two of his sons, the group displaying its considerable talents. Johann Sebastian’s Trio Sonata in...
Messiaen & Mozart … Parry & Brahms
Sir Andrew Davis’s conducting of Un sourire – which Messiaen composed in 1989 for the 200th-anniversary of Mozart’s death (1991) – made an appropriate as well as affecting opening to...
BBCSC, London Brass, O Duo – Wilful Chants
The BBC Symphony Chorus is more often than not heard performing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but was here given the chance to take centre-stage in a demanding and well-contrasted...
National Youth Orchestra of GB – Fantasias
This proved a well-planned ‘fantasy’ Proms concert and generally a splendid showcase for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Semyon Bychkov – a genial, authoritative and lucid conductor –...
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
A family bereavement prevented George Benjamin from conducting this late-night BBC Prom, but Ilan Volkov was available to direct this well-balanced programme of both potential and established modern classics. Oliver...
Paul Lewis Beethoven (3) [Hallé/Elder]
Three days after Dynamic Triptych, it was gratifying to record another festival first for John Foulds in this performance of April – England. Originally written in 1926 as a piano...
World Orchestra for Peace/Gergiev – Mahler
On the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995, Sir Georg Solti (1912-97) founded the World Orchestra for Peace, its players drawn from numerous orchestras, many of them concertmasters...
Vom Himmel Hoch … Threni
I wondered whether I would really want to hear anything after Mahler’s Third Symphony, especially after such a great performance as given by Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony...
Mahler 3/Runnicles
With Mahler all around us, it is hard now to recall just how infrequent performances of his Third Symphony used to be. Both Barbirolli and Horenstein memorably championed it (in...
Serenade to Music … The Lark Ascending
This oddly programmed and lopsided Prom began with a concerto, once again confirming that starting a concert with music featuring a soloist is a very unsatisfactory arrangement. Beginning this particular...
Aimard & Nott
Four-and-a-half years after his debut with the orchestra, and following a brace of well-received appearances at last year's BBC Proms, Jonathan Nott here returned to the BBC Symphony for a...
Christensson, Neven & Eijsackers
The third in the Proms Chamber Music series introduced two of the BBC’s New Generation Artists – always a guarantee that you’re going to hear some potentially great musicianship –...
Roméo et Juliette … Tristan und Isolde
On the question of ‘authenticity’ (which is what the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment aspires to be about), I wonder just how ‘authentic’ it is to present excerpts from...
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