BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

Camerata Salzburg/Leonidas Kavakos
This was ‘eine kleine nachtmusik’, not literally but metaphorically; Haydn and Mozart played with complete understanding and naturalness, always poised but never showy and with a complete rightness of rhythmical...
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eschenbach (2)
The Proms back into full stride after the previous night’s cancellation meant that the Philadelphia Orchestra (booked for two concerts) was able to contribute to this season – with two...
Stephen Kovacevich
Stephen Kovacevich's EMI recording of Schubert’s A major sonata is for me the greatest ever committed to disc, so to hear him play it live with the single-movement Berg was...
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eschenbach (1) [Cancelled]
"Due to the loss of electrical power following a minor fire at the Royal Albert Hall, it is with great regret that the Royal Albert Hall has been forced to...
Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle (2)
This concert presented a conundrum. With so much music he conducts, and so well, to choose from, why should Simon Rattle alight on Bruckner – a composer for whom he...
Escape Velocity
The final Proms Saturday Matinee of this season was a ‘Mostly Mozart’ affair, a couple of evergreens buttressing a rarely-played score, the concert spiced by a premiere for which OSJ’s...
Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle (1)
Sir Simon Rattle's and Berliner Philharmoniker’s appearances have now become a keenly-awaited, if not always artistically fulfilling, Proms fixture – but there can be little doubt that this showing was...
Songs of Despair and Sorrow … Rothko Chapel
Late-night proms have long yielded some of the most imaginative programmes. A choral concert with a difference, it opened with a welcome 80th-birthday tribute to György Kurtág. “Songs of Despair...
Goode Mozart and Bělohlávek Bruckner
Jiří Bělohlávek 's first Proms season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra has featured a wide range of music, with symphonic repertoire a notable feature – and, as...
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony should have been in the company of Sir Andrew Davis, the Orchestra’s Artistic Advisor. Illness (and surgery) forced Davis out of the first leg of the PSO’s...
Messages for the Queen of Sheba … Leningrad Symphony
Although the Arena was well-filled, this concert sold disappointingly in the stalls and in the seats higher up. A shame, for this was one of the great Proms of the...
More Mozart!
Can one have too much Mozart? Two full concerts on two consecutive nights is as good a test as any and the answer would seem to be that Mozart is...
Crushing Twister
The concert was devised to exhibit the successful, sustained presence of the jazz idiom in works of a classical stamp. Charles Hazelwood introduced the pieces, making it quite clear why...
Leopold String Trio & Friends
Each of the Bach arrangements was preceded by an introduction written in a totally different style – both possibly by Mozart. The voices of the fugues had been distributed among...
Mozart’s Requiem
The announcement of a ‘First performance at the Proms’ of a work by Mozart is certainly not an everyday occurrence. In the event, some explanation is necessary – what Philippe...
Skip to content