BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts

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Beethoven & Elliott Carter
Beethoven’s Fifth was clipped and swift, short on thrills and starved of momentous expanse. It was a curious performance, sometimes muddy-sounding, sometimes over-felicitous in detail (there was no doubting Beethoven’s...
6121 1
Monteverdi/I Fagiolini
We heard exemplary performances of three texts by Ottavio Rinuccini. The first exhorted Ferdinand "King of the Roman Empire" to join with the sun in bringing peace to the realm,...
6117 1
La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ
The celebration of Olivier Messiaen’s centenary continued with one of his most spectacular works, “La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ”. Composed between 1965 and 1969 to a Latin text compiled...
6114 1
Doctor Who Prom
With a pulse from a borrowed sonic screwdriver, Roger Wright – Director of the BBC Proms – seems to have transformed the annual children (or in this case definitely family)...
6110 1
John Tomlinson, Louis Lortie & Thomas Adès
An interesting mix of Russian favourites together with a piece by the conductor. The evening opened with the choral version of Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain, the City of...
6112 1
Troubled Light … Pictures at an Exhibition
I once struck up a conversation with a fellow traveller on a train journey. It turned out that he was a composition pupil of Simon Holt. I recall him telling...
6101 1
Bax, Rachmaninov & Vaughan Williams
A compact and well-linked concert: Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Fourth Symphony to Arnold Bax; Bax’s music has its Russian characteristics; and Rachmaninov played some of Bax’s piano music (I...
6100 1
A Prom from 1958
A feature of Roger Wright’s first season as Proms director is the recreation of concerts from the distant past (the second being Prom 48, which focuses on the first performance...
6098 1
Tallis Scholars
This late-night Prom gives the lie to our preoccupation that we live in uniquely complex musical times. Cast back 500 years and the word “complex” achieves its true meaning.Planned so...
6097 1
Stuttgart Radio Symphony/Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Norrington has form in performing a British symphony with his German orchestra at the Proms. A few years ago he played Vaughan Williams’s A Pastoral Symphony. Now it...
6094 1
Messiaen & Saint-Saëns from Paris
This year's Proms’ focus on Messiaen's centenary was marked in fine style by the first half of this satisfying programme. Olivier Latry – titular organist at Notre-Dame in Paris and...
6093 1
Pierre-Laurent Aimard Night Fantasies
This was the first of the eight Proms Chamber Music recitals for this season – given once again in the acoustically welcoming (if access-unfriendly!) environment of Cadogan Hall.Pierre-Laurent Aimard, making...
6092 1
Folk Day 2
Ringing the changes for the fifth time in as many concerts at the beginning of BBC Proms 2008, Roger Wright made a brief appearance before BBC Radio 3 rejoined the...
6091 1
Folk Day 1
This was the first of two Royal Albert Hall concerts on this day marking “Folk Day” at the BBC Proms and made the best out of a potentially fraught, not...
6090 1
NKQ – Nigel Kennedy Quintet
Remaining in the Royal Albert Hall for extra time, Nigel Kennedy, well-known as an Aston Villa supporter, presented a selection from his recent “A Very Nice Album”. As on the...