BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

10325 1
Delete Thierry Fischer (ill); insert Ryan Wigglesworth (available). With apologies to Robert Browning: oh to be in Italy now that the Olympics are here! Elgar was there, in Alassio, during...
There was an elegant logic to this Czech-oriented programme including Georg Szell’s orchestration of Smetana, which the great conductor regularly used as a calling-card, probably to test the mettle of...
10323 1
As Andrew McGregor mentioned in his brief spoken introduction, the wonder is that this was the Kronos Quartet’s debut at the Proms – 40 years old next year (with a...
10322 1
With the Olympics nearly upon us and Universal’s marketing campaign for “Beethoven For All” reaching the parts that classical PR rarely touches (Sky News for example), the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra...
10321 1
A tabloid might run the headline: “Interval Chaos at BBC Proms”. Of course, Classical Source is above such tittle-tattle, but more anon on this. Your correspondent only just made this...
The theme connecting this second recital in the Proms Chamber Music series was London Town, bearing in mind the opening of the Olympics later this same week. The link was...
10319 1
On consecutive Sundays, BBC Proms audiences have been treated to two of France’s greatest operas in unforgettable concert performances. While Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande was a memorable event, this performance...
10318 1
Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was significantly larger for this second concert in their Beethoven symphony cycle (six double basses for No.4, eight for the ‘Eroica’), flagging up their romantic...
10317 1
You could be forgiven for thinking that late Beethoven is a walk in the park compared to the uncompromising abstraction of the complete Art of Fugue (or as complete as...
10316 1
It says something for the combined pulling power of the BBC Proms, Beethoven, Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim that the German composer’s first two symphonies (which perhaps lack the cachet...
Lots of room in the Arena and surprisingly a lot of spare seats for this first Proms outing of Handel's great oratorio, here given by a fine cast of singers...
10314 1
Such was the level of royal approval for Handel’s three Suites of Water Music composed for a concert on the River Thames, that George I requested them played three times...
10313 1
César Cui has a lot to answer for. His critical response to Rachmaninov’s First Symphony was devastating: “If there was a Conservatory in Hell, and one of its talented pupils...
10312 1
Also sprach Zarathustra is a great way to start a concert, here known as Prom 5. The organ pedal, bass drum, high trumpets and timpani salvos promise much. It’s almost...
10311 1
After the exigencies of the opening weekend – the English first night, then major stage-works in My Fair Lady and Pelléas et Mélisande – Prom 4 fulfilled the traditional mix...