BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

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Olympic Fire … Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
On the opening day of the Beijing Games, Chen Yi’s Olympic Fire received its world premiere. Although born in China, the composer now lives in the US as an American...
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Ulster Orchestra
In 1915, Charles Villiers Stanford expressed his frustration at the cancellation of a Queen’s Hall Promenade Concert that was to have introduced his Second Piano Concerto to the British public....
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L’Ascension … Ringed by the Flat Horizon … Boléro
The programme-book listed some previous performances of L'Ascension at the Proms, in either the original version for organ or the consequent one for orchestra. I would have been even more...
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The King’s Singers
Any hesitation about hearing anything so soon after what may be the best concerto performance of this year’s Proms (Julia Fischer in Brahms’s Violin Concerto) and going straight back into...
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Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Established as recently as 1985 and conducted by Yakov Kreizberg since 2003, the Netherlands Philharmonic is Amsterdam's 'other' orchestra, giving the majority of its orchestral concerts in the Concertgebouw. A...
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Bach, Ethel Smyth, Rachmaninov – and Henry Wood
Sir Henry Wood was the common denominator for this Prom – as the dedicatee of Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra, an early champion of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony,...
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Alina Ibragimova & Huw Watkins
With Julia Fischer having been ill and unable to prepare for the advertised and attractive bill of Grieg and Tchaikovsky (with conductor Yakov Kreizberg at the piano), Alina Ibragimova and...
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Beethoven 1 & Das Lied von der Erde
Two very contrasted symphonies composed 110 years apart, either of which would put any self-respecting conductor and orchestra on their mettle.In September next year Donald Runnicles takes up the post...
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Wayne Marshall Organ Recital
I may be wrong, in which case I apologise in advance, but I believe this was the first solo organ recital ever given in a Proms season. If it was,...
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Stockhausen Day – 2: Stimmung
Stimmung is for six amplified singers and is truly a 'one-off' not onlyin Stockhausen's output but also in the context of Western European music.The technique of 'overtone' singing is one...
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Stockhausen Day – 1: Gruppen … Kontakte…
Karlheinz Stockhausen would have turned 80 on 22 August this year. One assumes that this “Stockhausen Day” was planned to celebrate the occasion, perhaps with the composer being present? In...
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Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Graven Image
Since I last heard the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko (on home ground), this completely different programme confirmed the good things that have been said about this pairing: that...
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The Coronation of Poppea
In a packed, hot and stuffy Royal Albert Hall Glyndebourne Festival Opera made its annual Proms appearance, this year with Robert Carsen’s production of “The Coronation of Poppea”.Stripped of Michael...
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World Music Celebration
Mayra AndradeWinner of the Newcomer Award, Mayra Andrade was the first artist of the roster and gave a confident and self-assured set, performing songs which appear on her album, “Navega”,...
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Hallé – A Shropshire Lad … Till Eulenspiegel
A quintessential Barbirolli programme (indeed Vaughan Williams dedicated his Eighth Symphony to the Hallé’s illustrious former Chief, "for Glorious John ... with love and admiration") from Sir Mark Elder who...