The London Proms (classical music)

[LONDONER]

Programme for Tuesday the 20th August:

I usually post this after midday but I'm posting this early today as I am due to leave for the airport shortly


Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Ian Bostridge, London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding live at the BBC Proms in a concert honouring the memory of Sir Colin Davis through music by Britten, Tippett and Elgar.

Tippett: The Mask of Time - Fanfare no. 5
Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Britten: Les illuminations

8.30pm Interval

8.50pm
Elgar: Symphony No. 2 in E flat major

Ian Bostridge (tenor)
London Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Harding (conductor)

What was to have been the latest Proms appearance by Sir Colin Davis becomes, following his death earlier this year, a concert honouring his memory. Taking over as conductor, Daniel Harding performs music by the modern British composer with whom Sir Colin was perhaps most associated - Michael Tippett - including in his programme Tippett's wonderfully vigorous, energetic and inventive Concerto for strings. This year's Britten centenary is marked in his white-hot 1940 song-cycle to words by the precocious teenage poet, surrealist and libertine Arthur Rimbaud. Concluding the concert, the magisterial Second Symphony by the grandfather of 20th-century English music, Edward Elgar.

[LONDONER]

Programme for Wednesday the 21st August:

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Penny Gore

Param Vir: Cave of Luminous Mind (BBC commission: world premiere)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor

8.35pm Interval

8.55pm
Bantock: Celtic Symphony
Elgar: 'Enigma' Variations

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Dedicated to the late Jonathan Harvey, Param Vir's Cave of Luminous Mind is inspired by the mindfulness of Tibetan Buddhism and the story of Buddhist master Milarepa's penitential progress on the Diamond Path.

Chief Conductor and Elgar Medalwinner Sakari Oramo directs the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Vir's work, Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations and Granville Bantock's 1940 Celtic Symphony for strings and six harps. Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili plays Sibelius's exhilarating Violin Concerto, a work she recorded in 2008 to rave reviews.

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air

[LONDONER]

Programme for Thiursday the 22nd August:

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Tchaikovsky: Fantasy-Overture 'Romeo and Juliet'
Wagner, orch. Mottl: Wesendonck-Lieder

7.45pm Interval

8.05pm
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major

Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano)
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor)

Tonights Prom features the Rotterdam Philharmonic and opens with a tale of doomed love in Tchaikovsky's Fantasy-Overture 'Romeo and Juliet', conducted by the orchestra's charismatic Canadian Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. They are then joined by Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci for Wagner's 'Wesendonck Lieder', a song-cycle written by the composer while he was infatuated with Mathilde Wesendonck, the author of the poems, and the wife of Wagner's patron. The second half of the concert is devoted to Prokofiev's bright and energetic Fifth Symphony in B flat major.

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air

[LONDONER]

Programme for Friday the 23rd August:

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major

8.30pm Interval

8.50pm
Panufnik: Tragic Overture
Panufnik: Lullaby
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B minor

Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Antoni Wit (conductor)

Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra make their Proms debuts as the festival continues its focus on Polish music during Lutoslawski's centenary year.
Written for the Warsaw Philharmonic in 1954, Lutoslawski's virtuosic folk-inflected Concerto for Orchestra creates a unique sound-world.
Lauded for his recording of Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, pianist Alexander Melnikov is the soloist in the composer's buoyant Piano Concerto No. 2.
Andrzej Panufnik's Tragic Overture and Lullaby and Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony paint a vivid picture of two nations in parallel periods of anxiety.

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air

[LONDONER]

Programme for Saturday the 24th August:

Don't miss Ravel's wittyy and jazz inspired piano concerto. If you don't already know it, take this opportunity to become acquainted. It's wonderful. The slow movement is to die for.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Wagner: Rienzi - Overture
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

8:15pm Interval

8:35pm
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor

Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano)
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Philippe Jordan (conductor)

Founded by Claudio Abbado in 1986, the pan-European Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester remains one of the most musically exciting and technically polished youth orchestras in the world. Tonight, Philippe Jordan directs the GMJO in the overture to Wagner's Rienzi and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, written in an atmosphere of intense scrutiny and artistic repression, after the public denouncement of his opera The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Ravel's jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G major completes the programme, with the flamboyant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet as the soloist.

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air

[LONDONER]

Programme for Sunday the 25th August:

The Hallé and Mark Elder perform Wagner's final opera Parsifal live at the BBC Proms, with Lars Cleveman in the title role and Katarina Dalayman as Kundry.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Wagner: Parsifal - Act 1 (concert performance, sung in German)

6:00pm Interval 1

7:00pm
Wagner: Parsifal - Act 2

8:45pm Interval 2

9:20pm
Wagner: Parsifal - Act 3

Parsifal ..... Lars Cleveman (tenor)
Kundry ..... Katarina Dalayman (mezzo-soprano)
Gurnemanz ..... John Tomlinson (bass)
Amfortas ..... Detlef Roth(baritone)
Klingsor ..... Tom Fox (bass)
Titurel ..... Reinhard Hagen (bass)
Voice from above ..... Madeleine Shaw (mezzo-soprano)
Knights ..... Robert Murray (tenor); Andrew Greenan (bass)
Flowermaidens ..... Elizabeth Cragg (soprano); Anita Watson (soprano); Sarah Castle (mezzo-soprano); Ana James (soprano); Anna Devin (soprano); Madeleine Shaw (mezzo-soprano)
Squires ..... Sarah Castle (mezzo-soprano); Madeleine Shaw (mezzo-soprano); Joshua Ellicott (tenor); Andrew Rees (tenor)
Trinity Boys Choir
Royal Opera Chorus
Hallé Youth Choir
The Hallé
Mark Elder (conductor)

Sir Mark Elder, Music Director of the Hallé, conducts them in Parsifal, Wagner's final music drama, an exploration of the value of compassion. The Knights of the Holy Grail face devastation: the sorcerer Klingsor, whom they rejected, has dealt their King Amfortas a wound that never heals. Their only hope lies in a prophecy that their salvation could come through 'a pure fool, made wise by compassion' - is Parsifal the man?

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air

[LONDONER]

Programme for Monday the 26th of August:

Something different tonight. Not exactly "classical" but enormous fun all the same. Definitely worth a listen

John Wilson Orchestra
John Wilson conductor

John Wilson and his orchestra return to the Proms in a celebration of the Hollywood film scores that Wilson describes as ‘literally unsung’ and a medley of theme songs (featuring distinguished vocalists) from otherwise non-musical movies.

Connecticut-born child prodigy Alfred Newman’s ‘Street Scene’, from How to Marry a Millionaire, contrasts with the music of Jewish émigrés Erich Korngold, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman, with suites from Korngold’s swashbuckling score for Robin Hood, Steiner’s nostalgic music for Casablanca and Waxman’s brooding score for A Place in the Sun – all of them Academy Award-winners – making for a red-carpet event at the Royal Albert Hall.

[LONDONER]

Programme for Tuesday the 27th August:

Sorry I couldn't post this earlier but no Internet connection on a plane.

Britten 100

Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Andrew Davis live at the BBC Proms. Jacques Imbrailo stars as Billy Budd, the doomed pure-hearted sailor caught between the predatory Claggart, and the weak Captain Vere.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Britten: Billy Budd - Act 1 (two-act revised version; semi-staged)

8:20pm Interval

8:40pm
Britten: Billy Budd - Act 2

Billy Budd ..... Jacques Imbrailo (baritone)
Captain Vere ..... Mark Padmore (tenor)
John Claggart ..... Brindley Sherratt (bass)
Mr Redburn ..... Stephen Gadd (baritone)
Mr Flint ..... David Soar (bass-baritone)
Lieutenant Ratcliffe ..... Darren Jeffery (bass)
Red Whiskers ..... Alasdair Elliott (tenor)
Donald ..... John Moore (baritone)
Dansker ..... Jeremy White (bass)
The Novice ..... Peter Gijsbertsen (tenor)
Squeak ..... Colin Judson (tenor)
Bosun ..... Richard Mosley-Evans (baritone)
First Mate ..... Michael Wallace (baritone)
Second Mate ..... Benjamin Cahn (baritone)
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Davis (conductor)

Andrew Davis conducts the London Philharmonic and the cast of Glyndebourne Festival Opera's production of Billy Budd. Based on Herman Melville's novella, the opera tells the story of a young sailor who is persecuted by the predatory master-at-arms John Claggart. His only hope of salvation is Captain 'Stary' Vere who is too rule-bound to help him. Jacques Imbrailo sings the innocent Budd, with Brindley Sherratt and Mark Padmore as Claggart and Vere.

[LONDONER]

Programme for Wednesday the 28th August:

BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and Josep Pons live at the BBC Proms. Stravinsky's Petrushka, a new work by Seither, and Frank Peter Zimmerman plays Brahms's much-loved Violin Concerto.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Louise Fryer

German composer Charlotte Seither adapts the words of the 17th-century poet Francesco de Lemene in a new work for the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, using voices and syllables as spots of 'human colour'. Josep Pons conducts this world premiere alongside the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Petrushka, the a cappella motets Ave Maria and Pater noster, and the four-minute novelty Scherzo à la russe, written in Hollywood for the bandleader Paul Whiteman.

Another German, the distinguished violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, plays the concerto that Johannes Brahms composed for his great friend, Joseph Joachim.

Stravinsky: Scherzo à la Russe
Stravinsky: Ave Maria
Stravinsky: Pater noster
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major

7:50pm Interval

8:10pm
Charlotte Seither: Language of Leaving (BBC Commission: world premiere)
Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947)

Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Josep Pons (conductor)

[LONDONER]

Programme for Thursday the 29th August:

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Donald Macleod

Mozart: Der Schauspieldirektor - Overture
Peter Eötvös: DoReMi (UK premiere)

8:00pm Interval

8:20pm
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major

Midori (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Tonight's Prom features the UK premiere of Peter Eötvös's 2nd violin concerto titled DoReMi, and described by soloist Midori as "so rhapsodic and so individual". The Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen then perform Bruckner's tribute to Wagner, his mighty Symphony no.7, complete with Wagner tubas.

The Proms can be heard by anyone online at this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/on-air