The Rite by Heart - T0128436021"I dreamed of a pagan ritual in which a sacrificial virgin danced herself to death." A vision was the inspiration for Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, a ballet that caused a literal riot at its premiere in 1913. This Prom is an unprecedented opportunity to get under the skin of the work that set the very foundations of society trembling with its urgent, jagged rhythms. Nicholas Collon and the pioneering Aurora Orchestra dramatise the Rite's origins, reliving the scene of its notorious concert premiere and finally perform the whole thing from memory.Company Aurora Orchestra. Conductor Nicholas Collon. | |
| 2 Sep 23 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L01979263950 |
Marius Neset and the London Sinfonietta - T752600090Drawing inspiration from artists as varied as Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, Mahler and Messiaen, Norwegian virtuoso jazz saxophonist Marius Neset has been credited with a 'voracious reinvention of jazz' and praised for the ‘breadth and depth of his emotional shading'. Neset makes his Proms debut alongside the rest of his quintet with the world premiere of a major new work, Geyser.Performer Marius Neset (saxophones). Performer Ivo Neame (piano). Performer Jim Hart (vibraphone / marimba / percussion). Performer Conor Chaplin (double bass). Performer Anton Eger (drums). Company London Sinfonietta. Conductor Geoffry Paterson. | |
| 3 Sep 22 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L371201309 |
Yuja Wang Plays Rachmaninov - T01452492351Explosively virtuosic and a thrilling live performer, Yuja Wang is the soloist in Rachmaninov's emotionally expansive and technically demanding Third Piano Concerto - one of the most challenging in the repertoire. She joins conductor Myung-Whun Chung and the Staatskapelle Dresden - the second of this week's visiting European orchestras - for a concert that also includes Brahms's genial Symphony No. 2, whose freshness and spontaneity have drawn comparisons with Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony.Performer Yuja Wang (piano). Conductor Myung-Whun Chung. | |
| 5 Sep 19 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L740784320 |
Sir Andras Schiff plays 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' (Book 2) - T0588045564The two volumes of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier are a window onto an extraordinary musical imagination - an infinitely varied, beguiling series of musical reflections and questions. Following his complete performance of Book 1 last year, distinguished pianist and Bach specialist Sir Andras Schiff returns to perform the complete Book 2. Much more than just a musical sequel, this volume pushes harmony and counterpoint further than ever before in its fascinating and uniquely challenging sequence of works. There will be no intervalPerformer Andreas Schiff (piano). | |
| 29 Aug 18 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1717279727 |
Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky - T1226148377Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC SO in an all-Russian Prom that climaxes with Tchaikovsky's Manfred. Kirill Gerstein is the soloist for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1, whose beauty is a natural companion to Taneyev's brooding Oresteia overture.Performer Kiri Gerstein (piano). Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Semyon Bychkov. | |
| 31 Aug 17 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1739872632 |
Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor - T893507841During the last four years of his life, Johann Sebastian Bach worked on a piece that he knew would represent the summation of his life's work. In the end, the material of Bach's almighty Mass in B minor was almost two decades in the making - a compilation of some of his finest vocal music woven together with startlingly original new music born of acute inspiration. William Christie conducts Bach's Mass with a quartet of soloists and his own ensemble Les Arts Florissants, known for its historically informed and infectiously exciting performances of Baroque music. There will be no intervalPerformer Katherine Watson (soprano). Performer Tim Mead (counter-tenor). Performer Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor). Performer Andre Morsch (baritone). Company Les Arts Florissants. Conductor William Christie. | |
| 1 Sep 16 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L98688256 |
Messiaen, Mozart & Bruckner - T01262635730Former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Igor Levit made his Proms debut at a Cadogan Hall chamber music recital in 2012. Now he makes his Proms concerto debut in Mozart's poignantly delicate No. 27, completing this year's series of late great Mozart piano concertos. Delicacy gives way to orchestral weight and heft in Bruckner's popular Seventh Symphony, its beautiful Adagio a tribute to Wagner, and a finale that, according to composer Robert Simpson, 'blends solemnity and humour in festive grandeur'. Finish time approx. 22:05Performer Igor Levit (piano). Company Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor Peter Oundjian (Proms debut artist). | |
| 2 Sep 15 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L325610241 |
Mahler & John Adams - T492500123Marin Alsop makes a welcome return following her triumph at last year's Last Night, to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's First Symphony. Originally designated a 'symphonic poem', the work retains all the programmatic colour this suggests. A young hero travels through life, marvelling at nature and growing to maturity, but encountering the sorrows and conflicts of Fate at every turn. Mahler's long-limbed lyricism meets its match in the muscular drive of John Adams's Saxophone Concerto, written for virtuoso soloist Timothy McAllister, and his iconic orchestral miniature Short Ride in a Fast Machine, which pulses with anarchic life. Finish time approx. 21:45Performer Timothy McAllister (alto saxophone). Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Marin Alsop. | |
| 4 Sep 14 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L410333506 |
Mozart, Peter Eotvos & Brucker - T668342747Described by the violinist Midori as 'so rhapsodic and so individual', DoReMi is Hungarian composer Peter Eotvos's second violin concerto. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in the UK premiere of a work first heard in Los Angeles this January. Eotvos's 'world of simple things' and the sparkling overture to Mozart's 1786 backstage comedy of artistic tantrums and overblown egos, Der Schauspieldirektor, contrast with the misty melancholy of Bruckner's great tribute to Wagner, the Seventh Symphony, its orchestration permeated by the sound of four Wagner tubas. Finish time: approx. 21:50Company Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. | |
| 29 Aug 13 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1061647234 |
Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle - T097270881One of the world's most remarkable musical partnerships offers an evening of wide-ranging sonic adventure. Three gripping approaches to experiencing calm feature in the first half - from Ligeti's slowly shifting sound-clouds through Wagner's sustained stillness to Sibelius's most formidable and bleak evocation of a frozen landscape. The Gallic second half is all about movement and dance. Tennis is not the only game played in Debussy's flirtatious ballet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, while Ravel's suite, drawn from an earlier commission for the same company, begins with a sunrise and ends in an orgy.Company Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor Simon Rattle (Sir). | |
| 30 Aug 12 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1478689494 |
Liszt & Mahler - T1227184081Hungary's foremost music ambassadors continue the Liszt celebrations with two of the composer's more macabre pieces, separated by the floral intermezzo Mahler originally intended to be part of his First Symphony. That titanic work, first performed in Budapest under the baton of the composer, is guaranteed to raise the roof. Before the interval, in his second appearance this year, Dejan Lazic champions Liszt's powerfully original Totentanz, in which the Dies irae is reimagined as a virtuoso piano piece with orchestral support. Finish time: approx. 21:15Performer Dejan Lazic (piano). Company Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor Ivan Fischer. | |
| 2 Sep 11 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L01460082416 |
BBC National Orchestra of Wales - T1537281571The BBC National Orchestra of Wales returns under its French-born Associate Guest Conductor, François-Xavier Roth, for an all-French first half, coupling Rameau's sparky, quintessentially Baroque opera suite with Canteloube's sumptuous arrangements of traditional folk songs. After the interval, visual art provides the link between the Paris-based Argentinian composer Martin Matalon's subtly shaded Lignes de fuite - named after a drawing technique - and the rarely heard, and typically flamboyant, arrangement of Musorgsky's musical picture gallery that Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood made a few years before the more familiar version by Ravel. Finish time: approx. 21:10 with intervalConductor Francois-Xavier Roth. Performer Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano). Company BBC National Orchestra of Wales. | |
| 2 Sep 10 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L0210506262 |
BBC Symphony Orchestra - T0721513659With its 98 players dispersed among the audience, Xenakis's Nomos gamma should make a stunning Proms piece, not least as the final drumrolls from its eight percussionists ricochet around the Arena. Both Aïs – a searing setting of ancient Greek texts by Homer and Sappho, with a wildly wide-ranging vocal line – and Rachmaninov's Stygian tonepoem, composed a century ago, confront the transience of life and the finality of death, while Shostakovich's 1945 Ninth seems almost to laugh off the horrors of war. A former New Generation Artist, percussionist Colin Currie also appears in our NGA 10th-Anniversary Weekend (PCM 7) and in Prom 33.Performer Leigh Melrose (baritone). Performer Colin Currie (percussion). Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor David Robertson. | |
| 2 Sep 09 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L683642580 |
Nishat Khan - T0766482149Finish time approx. 23:30Music Messiaen (20 mins)). Music Messiaen (c45 mins)). Performer Nishat Khan (sitar). Performer Rashid Mustafa Thirakwa (tabla). Performer Emmanuel Masongsong (tanpura). Company BBC Singers. Conductor David Hill. | |
| 1 Sep 08 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L0416692286 |
T0393156731Finish time approx. 21:30Conductor Jiri Belohlavek. Performer Nicholas Daniel (oboe). Performer Evelyn Glennie (Dame - percussion). Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Music Thea Musgrave (Two's Company - BBC commission: world premiere). Music Mahler (Symphony No 1 in D major). | |
| 31 Aug 07 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1557797908 |
T0511399259Finish time approx. 23:20Conductor Stephen Cleobury. Conductor Martyn Brabbins. Company BBC Singers. Company Nash Ensemble. Performer Any Freston (soprano). Music Gyorgy Kurtag (Songs of Despair and Sorrow). Music Schumann (Four Songs for double chorus Op 141). Music Feldman (Rothko Chapel). | |
| 31 Aug 06 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L01165164620 |
T1671903981Company Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor Mariss Jansons. Music Mahler (Symphony No 6 in A minor). | |
| 1 Sep 05 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L711788060 |
T0520134547Finish time approx. 21:05Music John Talbot (Sneaker Wave - BBC commission: world premiere). Music Weill (Songs - to include selection from Lady in the Dark). Music Alun Hoddinott (Euphonium Concerto - London premiere). Music Shostakovich (Symphony No 9 in E flat major). Performer Ruthie Henshall (singer). Performer David Childs (euphonium). Company BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor Grant Llewellyn. | |
| 2 Sep 04 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L01907969636 |
War and Peace - T2102895011Sung in English - semi staged. There will be one interval.Music Prokofiev (War and Peace). Performer Simon Keenlyside (Andrey). Performer Catrin Wyn-Davies (Natasha). Performer John Daszak (Pierre). Performer Willard W White (Kutuzov). Performer Peter Sidhom (Napoleon). Performer Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Akhrosimova). Performer Andrew Shore (Denisov). Performer Gwynne Howell (Bolkonsky). Performer John Graham-Hall (Anatole). Performer Clive Bayley (Dolokhov). Company Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera. Conductor Paul Daniel. | |
| 6 Sep 03 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1080590186 |
T0767397100Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Performer Midori (violin). Music Marc-Andre Dalbavie (Color - UK premiere). Music Barber (Violin Concerto). Music Tchaikovsky (Symphony No 4 in F minor). | |
| 6 Sep 02 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L221234751 |
T1796943956Music Wagner (Overture 'Tannhouser'). Music Elliott Carter (Partita). Music Mahler (Symphony No 1 in D major). Company Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Daniel Barenboim. | |
| 7 Sep 01 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1345126527 |
T854919478Music Beethoven (Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor). Music Hans Werner Henze (Symphony No 9 - UK premiere). Performer Alfred Brendel (piano). Company Berlin Radio Choir. Company BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Ingo Metzmacher. | |
| 1 Sep 00 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L1295539241 |
T287050941Music Sibelius (Symphony No 7). Music Lutoslawski (Symphony No 4). Music Tchaikovsky (Symphony No 6 in B minor Pathetique). Company BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor Mark Wigglesworth. | |
| 3 Sep 99 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L671715628 |
T0389383036Music Berg (Seven Early Songs). Music Strauss (An Alpine Symphony). Performer Barbara Bonney (soprano). Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Company European Union Youth Orchestra. | |
| 5 Sep 98 | Royal Albert Hall, Inner London :: V221 listing details L01117568364 |
