BBC Proms: Tony Cooper makes his personal selection of events from the 2026 edition of the world’s largest classical-music festival

The BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical-music festival, salutes the USA in this year’s edition marking 250 years since the signing of the US Declaration of Independence. 

A feast of music like no other, the BBC Proms (running from Friday 17th July to Saturday 12th September) illuminates London’s famous Royal Albert Hall for eight action-packed weeks offering music lovers the sheer joy of getting to see and hear some of the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists playing some of the world’s greatest music in one of London’s most iconic venues that rock guitarist, Eric Clapton, fondly dubs ‘The Albert’. Pint of twos, please!  

So closely associated with Sir Henry Wood - lovingly known as ‘Old Timber’ who, incidentally, was no stranger to Norwich as he was artistic director/conductor of the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival from 1908 to 1930 - this year’s Prom series features UK premières of major new works co-commissioned by the BBC from American composers Wynton Marsalis and Jessie Montgomery with appearances coming from prime conductors and star soloists as Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Angel Blue and Joyce DiDonato.  

Interestingly, there are so many associations with conductors and composers linked to Norwich and the Proms. For instance, the N&N Triennial commissioned Scottish-born composer, Thea Musgrave to write ‘The Five Ages of Man’, a masterful choral/orchestral work based on Hesiod’s ‘Works and Days’ - the scenario depicting the Greek myth of the decline and fall of humanity through five distinct ages: gold, silver, bronze, heroes and iron - premièred in St Andrew’s Hall on 6th June 1964 conducted by Charles Mackerras.  

Now 97 years old, Musgrave - who lived in Norfolk, Virginia (twinned, by the way, with Norfolk, England) for over a quarter of a century with her husband, Peter Mark, general music director of Virginia Opera from 1975 to 2010 - has come up with a new work for this year’s Prom series (a BBC commission) offering a bassoon concerto entitled ‘Out of the Darkness’ performed by Amy Harman (matinee show: 23 August) who has had works written for her by Olav Berg, Heloïse Werner, Brian Elias, Roxanna Panufnik, Robin Holloway and Simon Holt. A pretty good tally! 

America's 250th, 50 years since Britten's death, Miles Davis's centenary, anniversaries for Weber's Oberon & Varèse's Amériques: BBC Proms 2026

Suddenly it's that time of year and the BBC Proms programme has been launched again. This year there are 72 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall from 17 July to 12 September 2026, with further events across the UK - Bristol, Gateshead, Mold, Middlesbrough, Sunderland. 

Visitors include the Los Angeles Philharmonic (at the Proms for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century), the Berlin Philarmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, the Mahler Academy Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and The Met Orchestra making its first visit. There are nearly 20 premieres (world or UK). The festival is marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with music by Barber, Copland, Feldman, Gershwin, Jessie Montgomery and Steve Reich, and the 50th anniversary of Britten's death with the Cello Symphony, Simply Symphony, Violin Concerto, Les Illuminations and more. There is also a focus on Richard Strauss centred around Glyndebourne's visit with its new production of Ariadne auf Naxos, along with four major tone poems, the final scene of Salome (with Elza van den Heever) and the Four Last Songs with Natalya Romaniw.

It is a year for pianists. Yunchan Lim plays Ravel at the First Night, Yuja Wang plays Barber's fiendish Piano Concerto (the first version of which was declared unplayable by Horowitz!) at the Last Night. In between Alexandra Dariescu makes her Proms debut in Nadia Boulanger, as do siblings Lucas and Arthur Jussen in Poulenc. Martha Argerich plays Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Kirill Gerstein plays Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini.

Making restitution: Sir Arthur Bliss' The Beatitudes returns to BBC Proms after a gap of 60 years

Bliss: The Beatitudes - Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, 
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo
BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Ruth Gips: Death on the Pale Horse, Grieg: Piano Concerto, Bliss: The Beatitudes; Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, Lukas Sternath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 7 September 2025

Bliss' powerful war-inspired cantata, written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral and Ruth Gips' 1943 tone-poem with Grieg's concerto as a somewhat unlikely make-weight

Some works recover from a disastrous premiere whilst others simply disappear. Sir Arthur Bliss' large-scale choral cantata The Beatitudes was written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962 alongside Britten's War Requiem. Logistics (and perhaps a bit of politicking) meant the premiere of Bliss' piece being bumped to the unsatisfactory Belgrave Theatre. The Beatitudes was performed at the BBC Proms two years late in 1964, but it took until 2012 for it to be finally performed in Coventry Cathedral.

On Sunday 7 September 2025, Bliss' The Beatitudes returned to the BBC Proms alongside another British work arising from the Second World War, Ruth Gips' Death on a Pale Horse. Rather curiously, Grieg's Piano Concerto was sandwiched in the middle and at least one couple in the audience, having listened attentively to the Grieg seem to have decided that the Bliss was not worth returning for.

Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus with Lukas Sternath as soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto and soprano Elizabeth Watts and tenor Laurence Kilsby as soloists in Bliss' The Beatitudes.

Grieg: Piano Concerto - Lukas Stenrath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

BBC Proms: Two tempests, a fire and a swan, Thomas Adès conducts Sibelius, Gabriella Smith & his own music with BBC Symphony Orchestra

Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests - James McVinnie, Thomas Adès, BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Proms (Photo: Andy Paradise/BBC)

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela, Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests, Thomas Adès: Five Spells from The Tempest, Sibelius: The Tempest - Suite No. 1; James McVinnie, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 2 September 2025

Mixing his own music with that of Sibelius and the UK premiere of a work written for the organ of the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Thomas Adès demonstrated a remarkable ear for creating sophisticated shifting palates of orchestral colour

When I spoke to organist James McVinnie last year [see my interview with him celebrating the Southbank Centre organ's 70th birthday], one of the works he mentioned was American composer Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests so it was with great pleasure that we were able to catch McVinnie's performance in the UK premiere of the work at the BBC Proms.

At the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 2 September 2025, Thomas Adès conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme that moved from Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela to Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests (with James McVinnie on the Royal Albert Hall organ), to Adès' own Five Spells from The Tempest and back to Sibelius with his The Tempest - Suite No. 1.

BBC Proms: Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth from massed BBC & ENO forces but Amanda Majeski's Katerina triumphs

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk - John Findon, Amanda Majeski, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, ENO, John Storgårds - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Andy Paradise)

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk; Amanda Majeski, Brindley Sherratt, John Findon, Nicky Spence, director: Ruth Knight, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, Chorus & Orchestra of ENO, conductor: John Storgårds; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 1 September 2025

Massed forces bring out the power and savagery of Shostakovich's score but it was Amanda Majeski in a masterly account of the title role who really triumphed

One of the strands in this year's BBC Proms has been the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich and Monday 1 September at the Royal Albert Hall saw what must be the large-scale centre piece of these, a collaboration between the BBC Philharmonic and English National Opera to present Shostakovich's 1936 opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in all its messy magnificence. 

John Storgårds conducted the BBC Philharmonic and the brass section of the Orchestra of English National Opera with the BBC Singers, and Chorus of English National Opera. Amanda Majeski was Katerina with Brindley Sherratt as Boris, John Findon as Zinovy, Nicky Spence as Sergey plus Thomas Mole, Ronald Samm, Alaric Green, Chuma Sijeqa, William Morgan, Willard White and Niamh O'Sullivan. The semi-staging was directed by Ruth Knight.

For all the operatic talent on stage, it was very much the orchestra which was the focus here. The huge forces of the BBC Philharmonic and brass of the ENO Orchestra - 60 strings, triple woodwind, five horns, eight brass, eight percussionists plus 15 players from ENO in the choir stalls - almost filled the stage. There was a narrow acting area at the front of the stage but Ruth Knight's production made the most of what was available so the the theatrical performance took place in front and behind of the orchestra. Dramatically this was highly imaginative, make the best use of the stage and present the opera with great clarity. Unfortunately, the Royal Albert Hall is not the most sympathetic of venues and placing much of the action at the back of the stage, behind the orchestra rather compromised the balance. And even when singers were at the front of the stage, Shostakovich's exuberant orchestration overbalanced things.

Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk - Amanda Majeski, Nicky Spence, BBC Philharmonic - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Andy Paradise)

It was the orchestral performance that dominated. The opera, with its five orchestral interludes and strongly satirical writing (Shostakovich uses popular-style tunes to undercut some of the dramatic action) lent the whole a particularly savage feel. During the murder of Zinovy, Shostakovich writes jauntily for the orchestra but as rendered here by the massed forces on stage, the results were terrifying and causing Nicky Spence's (Sergey) dramatic efforts to strangle John Findon (Zinovy) to very much take second place in the drama. And there were moments when the grimly comic stage action seemed very much at odds with the savagely satirical writing in the orchestra.

BBC Proms: Rarely has large-scale Handel felt so vital & involving. Peter Whelan & the Irish Baroque Orchestra in the Dublin version of Alexander's Feast

Handel: Alexander's Feast - Hilary Cronin, Stuart Jackson, Peter Whelan, Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Handel: Alexander's Feast (1742 version, modern premiere), Concerti a due cori; Hilary Cronin, Hugh Cutting, Stuart Jackson, Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus, Peter Whelan; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 30 August 2025

This was unashamedly Big Baroque with the Dublin version of Alexander's Feast where Peter Whelan drew a remarkably communicative and urgent performance from all his players.

Handel's Alexander's Feast tends to be something of an unsung gem amongst his oratorios, perhaps Dryden's text is somewhat too poetically diffuse for modern audiences to take to their heart but in the work Handel displays his masterly grasp of creating large scale structures by interweaving chorus, recitative and aria into something more. He wrote the work in 1736 as a result of a sustained campaign by his friends to get the composer setting some great English poets, a campaign that would lead to Handel's other Dryden and Milton settings.

Until this year, the work had only been performed twice at the BBC Proms, in 1964 and in 2006 (this latter performance in Mozart's re-orchestration). On Saturday 30 August for their first appearance at the BBC Proms (and only the second appearance ever of an ensemble from the Republic of Ireland), Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra chose to perform Handel's 1742 Dublin version of Alexander's Feast along with a selection of his Concerti a due cori. The orchestra was joined by the Irish Baroque Chorus and soloists soprano Hilary Cronin, alto Hugh Cutting and tenor Stuart Jackson.

When Handel visited Dublin in 1741 and 1742 he gave two subscription series which would include the premiere of Messiah and a serenata version of his last opera, Imeneo. He also planned on performing Alexander's Feast but a decree from the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Jonathan Swift, meant that Handel could no longer use the singing men from the cathedral. This meant that Alexander's Feast had to be adjusted. The result is structurally different from the 1736 version, with a third part, using text by Irish writer Newburgh Hamilton who had arranged Dryden's original, and solos rewritten for soprano Christina Avolio, alto Susannah Cibber (who was in Dublin avoiding a sex scandal in London and who made a big impression in the alto solos in Messiah) and tenor Callaghan McCarty who was a Dublin-based theatre singer.

Handel: Alexander's Feast - Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

As Peter Whelan explained to me when we chatted in July [see my interview, Spurred by the story-telling], he designed the performance partly for the Royal Albert Hall and this was certainly Big Baroque. We had a chorus of 40, and orchestra with 30 strings, four oboes, three bassoons and four horns. These latter looked and sounded pretty spectacular with their miles of tubing and highly characterful timbre. The continuo line-up included two harpsichords (one played by Whelan), two theorbos and organ.

BBC Proms: A performance to treasure as Fabio Luisi & the Danish National Symphony Orchestra celebrate their centenary with Beethoven, Bent Sørensen & Anna Clyne

Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Bent Sørensen: Evening Land, Anna Clyne: The Years, Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’; Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage, Adam Pałka, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Concert Choir, Fabio Luisi; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Beethoven's choral symphony in a performance full of vivid energy and intense detail yet never straining for a sense of scale. The orchestra's principal conductor brought discipline and imagine to an oft repeated work.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DR Symfoniorkestret) is celebrating its centenary. It was created in 1925 as part of the founding of DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), partly in emulation of the BBC where the predecessor to the BBC Philharmonic had been created in 1922. As part of the celebrations the orchestra and its chief conductor, Fabio Luisi paid a visit to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 21 August 2025 along with the Danish National Concert Choir (DR Koncertkoret) and soloists Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage and Adam Pałka to perform Bent Sørensen's Evening Land, Anna Clyne's The Years and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’.

We began with Evening Land by Danish composer Bent Sørensen who has a long relationship with the orchestra. This was only the third of Sørensen's pieces to be performed at the Proms and one of those previous performances was given by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra on a previous visit in 2008. Evening Land was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 2017, the piece now features regularly in Danish National Symphony Orchestra programmes. It is inspired by an image Sørensen had from his childhood on the island of Zealand in Denmark which he recalled whilst in New York so that "the vision of quiet – mixed with the new vision of flashes of light and bustling activity".

Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage, Adam Pałka - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

BBC Proms - Classics, bon-bons and an engagingly fresh account of an enduring masterpiece, Nil Venditti conducts BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Great British Classics - BBC Singers, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Nil Venditti - BBC Proms 2025 (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Great British Classics: Walton, Vaughan Williams, Coleridge-Taylor, Britten, William Mathias, John Rutter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Grace Williams, Elgar; Liya Petrova, BBC Singers, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Nil Venditti; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 5 August 2025

The Italian-Turkish conductor mixed establish classics with varied bon-bons including John Rutter's 80th birthday commission and ending with an engagingly fresh account of Elgar's enduring masterpiece

Tuesday 5 August's concert at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall was billed as Great British Classics. True, Nil Venditti did conduct the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Walton's Crown Imperial, Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending (with violinist Liya Petrova), Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Elgar's Enigma Variations but someone had been rooting around in the library cupboards and so these works were shaken up with a selection of lesser-known bon-bons in the manner of a pre-War programmes. It was a very Proms programme too, mixing a cappella music from the BBC Singers with full orchestra in a way that few promoters could afford. But it meant that we heard part-songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his daughter, Avril Coleridge Taylor, along with William Mathias' Dance Overture, Grace Williams' Elegy for Strings and the premiere of a BBC commission, John Rutter's Bird Songs.

Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti was appointed principal guest conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia last September and she seems to be developing a relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, giving seven concerts with them during their 2025/26 season.

We began with Walton's Coronation March 'Crown Imperial' which was written for the 1936 Coronation and gave the first glimpse of a rather different Walton to his earlier music. Here we heard it in Vilem Tausky's reduced orchestration (which still included double woodwind, five horns, three trumpets and three trombones). Venditti's approach was brisk, it opened full of impetus and energy enlivened by crisp rhythms with the noble second subject rather flowing and youthful in feel. Hardly Imperial at all.

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending - Liya Petrova, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Nil Venditti - BBC Proms 2025 (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending was completed in 1914 and premiered in 1920, so it should not surprise us that the work's pastoral melancholy goes far beyond the George Meredith poem that inspired it. Soloist Liya Petrova made the violin's opening slow, meditative and thoughtful. The strings were impressively hushed when joining her, and there was a mysterious melancholy to the piece. Throughout Venditti avoided hints of folk rumbustiousness, the faster section was only just perky and the closing pages returned to the meditative feel.

BBC Proms: Arvo Pärt at 90

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste - BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Arvo Pärt, Galina Grigorjeva, Rachmaninov, Bach, Veljo Tormis; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste, Kadri Toomoja; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 31 July 2025

An iconic Estonian ensemble celebrating the great Estonian composer's 90th birthday with a wide-ranging programme of his music alongside that of contemporaries and influences.

This year Arvo Pärt is 90 and everyone is celebrating. At the BBC Proms, rather than including one of the composer's larger scale works, the focus of the celebrations was a visit by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir which has had a long association with the composer's music. I have heard the choir live before, in Tallinn, performing in the relatively grateful acoustics of a former church [see my review] and the large hall of Kultuurikatel (Cultural Cauldron), a former industrial building [see my review], whilst in 2018 as part of Estonia's centenary celebrations they performed at the Barbican [see our review]. The vast spaces of the Royal Albert Hall are, perhaps, a less sympathetic arena but there is no doubt that an invitation to perform Arvo Pärt at such an iconic venue as part of the BBC Proms was a significant moment.

At the late night Prom on Thursday 31 July 2025, Tõnu Kaljuste conducted the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, with Kadri Toomoja organ, in Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine, Veni creator, Magnificat, The Deer's Cry, Fur Jan van Eyck, Peace upon you, Jerusalem and De Profunds, along with Galina Grigorjeva's Svyatki - 'Spring is Coming', two movements from Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Bach's motet Ich lasse dich nicht, and Curse upon Iron by Veljo Tormis who would have been 95 this year.

Veljo Tormis: Curse upon Iron - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste - BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

In the Royal Albert Hall there was less sense of the choir's vibrant tone quality that you can appreciate in smaller venues, but throughout the evening there was an impressive strength to the performance, a muscular quality to set against the English style of Arvo Pärt choral singing. Though it is worth bearing in mind that the choir fielded around 27 singers. The BBC producers had obviously decided that as this was a late-night concert of Baltic minimalism, we ought to have a light show too. The pictures here do not quite do justice to the rather lurid light effects that accompanied some of the music.

Spurred on by the story-telling: conductor Peter Whelan on bringing the Dublin version of Handel's Alexander's Feast to life with the Irish Baroque Orchestra

Peter Whelan conducting Mozart's Symphony No.41 "Jupiter", image taken from video
filmed at the Whyte Recital Hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, 9/9/2023. Produced by November Seven Films.

Conductor Peter Whelan is bringing the Irish Baroque Orchestra (IBO), of which he is artistic director, to the BBC Proms this Summer with a performance of Handel's Alexander's Feast. As with their performance of Handel's Messiah at Wigmore Hall in 2023 [see my review], there is an Irish connection, and the ensemble will be exploring the version of Alexanders Feast that Handel produced for his visit to Dublin in 1742. As artistic partner of Irish National Opera, Peter has conducted the IBO in several productions, including two imaginative productions of Vivaldi operas, Bajazet in 2022 [see my review] and L'Olimpiade in 2024 [see my review]. It was recently announced that Peter will be the next artistic director of Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.

Peter Whelan (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

During an engaging couple of hours that I spent chatting with Peter, we covered a great deal of ground, but what struck me was not just his passion for the music but the way the story behind the music was important to him. He mentions as a child learning about Handel coming to Ireland and being taken with the story, this seems to have sparked an interest not only in music but in the stories behind it.

With IBO, he has produced a striking series of discs in Linn Records exploring Baroque music in Ireland by focusing on the stories of different characters from Irish musical history, illuminating the 18th-century musical life of the country. The most recent is Rachel Baptist: Ireland's Black Syren, and others include Mr Charles the Hungarian: Handel's rival in Dublin, The Trials of Tenducci: A Castrato in Ireland, and Welcome Home Mr Dubourg.

However, we began our chat with Handel's Alexander's Feast. During August, Peter and IBO will be performing this at Kilkenny Arts Festival, Dublin HandelFest, the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh as part of Summer at Snape. To a certain extent, the choice of Alexander's Feast for the BBC Proms was pragmatic; each year at the Proms, there is usually a big work by Handel and by Bach, and you need a grand work to fit the space. The performance would also be a chance to recreate the 1742 Dublin version of Alexander's Feast, which has never been performed in modern times. And there is the additional benefit that the piece is about the healing power of music. Peter also proudly points out that the IBO will only be the second group from the Republic of Ireland to perform at the BBC Proms (the previous one was in the 1970s).

Handel wrote Alexander's Feast originally in 1736, setting an adaptation of John Dryden's Ode for St Cecilia's Day (originally set in 1697 by Jeremiah Clarke), but Handel revised the work for subsequent performances and it was one of the scores he took with him to Ireland in 1742 when he was invited there. Peter has been working with the Handel scholar Donald Burrows on the 1742 version, which had very particular circumstances behind it. Handel intended to use the singing men from St Patrick's Cathedral for his performance, but the Dean objected. The Dean at the time was Jonathan Swift, who was beginning to suffer his mental decline and had become somewhat cantankerous. The result was that Swift wrote what Peter calls an amazing letter to Handel announcing that none of the singing men could take part in the performance.

Music on a summer’s day. How lovely! Avid Prommer Tony Cooper explores the 2025 BBC Proms

Bliss' The Beatitudes performed in Coventry Cathedral for the first time, the building for which it was commissioned and written; Orla Boylan (soprano), Andrew Kennedy (tenor), Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, BBC Philharmonic, Paul Daniel (conductor) in 2012

The BBC Proms eight-week season features over 3000 artists and the first ‘all-night’ Prom in almost half a century. Avid Prommer, Tony Cooper, reports on the world’s largest classical-music festival that helps to make summer tick.

When the BBC Proms arrives, summer, in my humble opinion, arrives, too. A feast of music like no other, the Proms (running from Friday 18th July to Saturday 13th September) offers so much over its packed eight-week season with a total of 86 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. 

This is the first complete Proms series that Sam Jackson, who took over the post of controller of BBC Radio 3 and director of the Proms from David Pickard a couple of years ago, is responsible for. He has most certainly come up with an interesting, varied and attractive programme that should find widespread appeal among hard-headed Prommers while helping to attract new audiences. 

Branching out, too, the Proms takes off to Bradford as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture as well as Sunderland while returning to Bristol and Gateshead for two three-day weekend residencies with a special Prom in Belfast to mark the centenary of Radio 4’s popular ‘Shipping Forecast’ focusing on music inspired by the sea. 

From RVW's Sancta Civitas & Bliss' The Beatitudes to Reich's The Desert Music & Birtwistle's Earth Dances, plus 19 premieres: the BBC Proms 2025

This years BBC Proms are the first under the stewardship of Sam Jackson, controller of BBC Radio 3 who took over the Proms this year from David Pickard. Running from 18 July to 13 September, the festival features 72 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and 14 at venues around the UK.

The First Night opens with the Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood, by Sir Arthur Bliss, who died fifty years ago this year. Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in an evening that also include Ralph Vaughan Williams' rarely performed Sancta Civitas which was completed 100 years ago, and the premiere of Errollyn Wallen's The Elements, a BBC commission.

Bliss anniversary celebrations during the season also include his cantata The Beatitudes, premiered in Coventry at the same time as Britten's War Requiem and rather overshadowed by that work. The Beatitudes is well worth exploring and I look forward to hearing the work with Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Singers in a programme that also includes Ruth Gipps' Death on a Pale Horse.

Major anniversaries include Shostakovich who also died fifty years ago.

Prom 52: Intelligent, vivid & satisfying account of Bizet's Carmen from Rihab Chaied, Evan LeRoy Johnson & Anja Bihlmaier at Glyndebourne's visit to the BBC Proms

Bizet: Carmen - Rihab Chaieb, Evan LeRoy Johnson, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier - Glyndebourne Festival at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Bizet: Carmen; Rihab Chaied, Evan LeRoy Johnson, Lukasz Goliński, Janai Brugger, director: Diane Paulus/Adam Torrance, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier; Glyndebourne Festival at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 29 August 2024

Strong cast, a stripped down yet intelligent production and superb conducting lead to a profoundly involving and musically satisfying performance

Glyndebourne Opera has been performing Bizet's Carmen this Summer in a new production by Diane Paulus, with the lead roles double cast and with two conductors. Following the end of the run, the company brought the production to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 29 August 2024. Anja Bihlmaier (the recently announce principal guest conductor with the BBC Philharmonic, who conducted the August performances at Glyndebourne) was the conductor with a cast that mixed the first cast Carmen, Rihab Chaieb [whom we saw as Charlotte in Zurich Opera's production of Massenet's Werther earlier this year, see my review], and the other principals from the second cast with Evan LeRoy Johnson as Don Jose, Lukasz Goliński as Escamillo and Janai Brugger as Micaëla, plus Dingle Yandell as Zuniga, Thomas Mole as Moralès, Elisabeth Boudreault as Frasquita, Kezia Bienek as Mercédès, Loïc Félix as Le Dancaïre, and François Piolino as Le Remendado, with the Glyndebourne Chorus and London Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Youth Opera and members of Trinity Boys Choir. Adam Torrance directed, based on Diane Paulus' production for the Glyndebourne Festival.

For all its extreme popularity, Carmen presents a series of challenges, the Spanish-isms and Opéra Comique element cannot be ignored and directorial decisions have to be made. But more than that, too often productions concentrate on what we might call the socialogical elements, creating intense drama at the expense of the whole. For all the difficulty of the work's reception, Carmen is a carefully crafted drama that mixes tragedy with comedy and poignant moments, along with the need to entertain.

Bizet: Carmen - Lukasz Golinski, Dingle Yandell, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier - Glyndebourne Festival at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Reading reviews of Diane Paulus' original productionn and seeing Adam Torrance's semi-staging based on it, what impressed was the way that we had all the features from the libretto, without any adjustments. Torrance gave us a very straightforward and insightful modern-dress Carmen, stripped down but with all the elements including the lighter scenes in Act Two, and plenty of dancing. It provided a strong showcase for some vivid characters. There was dialogue too, not heaps, but more than in some productions; though no-one was credited for sound design, the dialogue was amplified which was probably sensible given the venue.

Prom 50: Two rarities and a classic from Jakub Hrůša and Czech Philharmonic

Dvorák: Piano Concerto - Mao Fujita, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor, Janáček: Glagolitic Mass; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Mao Fujita, Corinne Winters, Bella Adamova, David Butt Philip, Pavel Švingr, Christian Schmitt, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 August 2024

Two rarities and a classic in a prom which showed the Czech orchestra's superb quality, allied to fine performances and soloists

Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra returned to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 28 August 2024 giving us another treat pairing Czech rarities with something familiar. Their second programme featured the first ever performance at the BBC Proms of Vítězslava Kaprálová's Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor with soloist Mao Fujita, and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass with soloists Corinne Winters (soprano), Bella Adamova (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor) and Pavel Švingr (bass, replacing Brindley Sherratt), plus Christian Schmitt (organ) and the City of Prague Philharmonic Choir.

Vítězslava Kaprálová is one of those figures who blazed brilliantly yet briefly. Born in Brno in 1915, she studied in Brno and Prague, but an encounter with Bohuslav Martinů led her to Paris where she had a long and intense relationship with the composer, both professional and personal. She married the son of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha in 1940, but died in June that year. Her Military Sinfonietta was written whilst she was still a student at Prague Conservatory and the work was written against the backdrop of pressure from Nazi Germany for the Czech Republic to cede territory. 

Janácek: Glagolitic Mass - Corinne Winters, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

She conducted the Czech Philharmonic in the premiere at a gala in Prague in 1937, the first woman to conduct the orchestra. She conducted a performance in London in June 1938 for the International Festival of Contemporary Music, when she became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Rather embarrassingly, given this link, the performance of her Military Sinfonietta is the first time any of her works have been performed at the Proms.

Prom 49: A consumate & deeply felt account of Suk's masterful Asrael Symphony crowns the Czech Philharmonic's first appearance at the 2024 BBC Proms

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák: Cello Concerto, Suk: Asrael Symphony; Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 27 August 2024

The Czech orchestra impresses with its superb accompaniment to Kobekina's idiomatic approach to the concerto, and then Suk's huge symphony receives a superb performance, completely consumate and deeply felt

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal guest conductor, Jakub Hrůša, have been on a tour of European Summer festivals with stops at Elbphilharmonie Sommer in Hamburg, the Lucerne Festival and Wiesbaden's Rheingau Musik Festival with a final stop at the BBC Proms with two concerts. For their first concert, on Tuedsay 27 August 2024 at the Royal Albert Hall, Jakub Hrůša conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with soloist Anastasia Kobekina, and Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony.

Suk's masterwork was making only its second appearance at the BBC Proms. Czech Philharmonic and Hrůša have recorded Asrael for a Suk cycle they are currently preparing for Pentatone, whilst Hrůša conducted the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (of which he is chief conductor) in Suk's Asrael Symphony at the Edinburgh International Festival earlier this month.

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto was written for his friend cellist Hanuš Wihan in 1894 whilst Dvořák was working in New York at the National Conservatory for Music, and one of the more unlikely impetuses for the work is that whilst in New York, Dvořák heard the premiere Cello Concerto No. 2 by composer and cellist Victor Herbert, one of the teachers at the conservatory. Herbert's use of a cello in a concerto was unusual at the time but the writing convinced Dvořák. Another inspiration is that whilst writing it, he learned that his sister-in-law was dying and she was the woman that Dvořák had originally been in love with!

Prom 40: Transcending limitations, Bach's St John Passion from Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms

Bach: St John Passion - Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Bach: St John Passion; Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance, Shimon Yoshida, Bach Collegium Japan, Maasaki Suzuki; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 19 August 2024

Ultimately this was Maasaki Suzuki's evening as he forcefully directed the music that he knows and loves, giving us a personal vision that more than filled the hall

The BBC Proms provide the opportunity for a large number of people to hear a remarkably diverse range of music, but with the proviso that not everything is really suited to the wide open spaces of the Royal Albert Hall and visiting ensembles, often on a tour of more conventional venues, can struggle to fit the hall's distinctive acoustics.

Maasaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan are in the middle of a Summer tour and their London stop at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall gave us a chance to hear Suki's masterly approach to Bach's St John Passion with Benjamin Bruns as Evangelist, Christian Immler as Christus and the bass soloist, plus soloists Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance and Shimon Yoshida.

Bach: St John Passion - Alexander Chance, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Suzuki used 17 choristers with the soloists singing in the choir thus bringing the number up to 20/21, and an instrumental ensemble with 13 strings, and in the hall this meant that balance was somewhat off. In the big choruses, the upper strings simply did not carry against the choral sound, though the bass line, reinforced by double bass, bassoon and magnificent contrabassoon, was strong. But this is a compromise we must happily make to enable us to hear this ensemble. On the plus side, the soloists were all well attuned to the hall and there were none of the audibility problems that occurred in Saturday's performance of Britten's War Requiem [see my review]. 

The results were absorbing, at times thrilling and undoubtedly moving, but let us not kid ourselves, what we heard was probably a world away from anything Bach might have expected. But Bach's music is able to transcend the limitations and strictures of any particular performance.

Prom 37: intense contrasts thundering cannonades to personal intimacy, Antonio Pappano conducts Britten's War Requiem at the BBC Proms

Britten: War Requiem - Allan Clayton, Natalya Romaniw, Antonio Pappano, Will Liverman, London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms with chorus directors Mariana Rosas and Neil Ferris (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Britten: War Requiem; Natalya Romaniw, Allan Clayton, Will Liverman, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, Tiffin Boys Choir, Antonio Pappano; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 17 August 2024

Antonio Pappano draws an evening of intense contrasts from his performers from thundering cannonades to intense, personal intimacy, yet always with a sense of discipline and clarity

Britten's War Requiem has been a presence at the BBC Proms since 1963, a year after the premiere, and was last at the BBC Proms in 2019 when Peter Oundjian conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (with Allan Clayton as tenor soloist).  This year the work returned on Saturday 17 August 2024, with Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra with soloists Natalya Romaniw (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor) and Will Liverman (baritone), plus the London Symphony Chorus and the BBC Symphony Chorus, with a boys choir drawn from the Tiffin Boys Choir (director James Day) with boys from HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and Temple Church.

The performers filled the stage and choir stalls, the wide open spaces of the hall seeming ideal for this work. But Britten's score pits the large scale against the intimate, and Antonio Pappano drew a remarkable dynamic range from his performers, from hushed, barely there to sheer terror. However, whatever the dynamic, the approach was always disciplined and even in the noisy cannonades of the Libera me, there was a clarity to the textures. Throughout, Pappano seemed to encourage a crispness of diction from his choral singers so that the very opening of the work was strong and intent, despite the hushed tones. This strength of character and intent wove its way throughout the performance.

Britten: War Requiem - Natalya Romaniw, Allan Clayton, Antonio Pappano, Will Liverman, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

As has become the norm with this work, Pappano conducted both the orchestra and the chamber ensemble (placed stage left). His two male soloists, Allan Clayton and Will Liverman, seemed to both be deliberately holding back, drawing us toward them. Both gave us moments when they easily filled the hall, but a lot of the time the performance made us work to listen hard, the result was some magic moments but a tendency for the Wilfred Owen settings to seem somewhat muted (at least from our seats in the stalls, it may well be different on the radio or on TV).

Prom 24: Vividness & virtuosity in an astonishing danced staging of Purcell's The Fairy Queen with Les Arts Florissants & Mourad Merzouki's Companie Käfig,

Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Les Arts Florissants, singers from Le Jardin des Voix, dancers from Companie Käfig - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Chris Christodoulou)

Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Les Arts Florissants, singers from Le Jardin des Voix, dancers from Companie Käfig, director: Mourad Merzouki, conductor Paul Agnew; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Merzouki's staging showcased the astonishing virtuosity of his dancers and the engaging way singers and dancers combined, conveying their sheer enjoyment of the music

Everyone has their own idea about what to with Purcell's The Fairy Queen. Containing some of his finest theatre music, the work as originally performed, with nearly two hours of sub-par spoken dialogue, does not appeal to regular theatre going, though I think to hear and see The Fairy Queen in a production that recreated the effects of the original would be revelatory. For most dramatic performances, Purcell's music is taken on its own with a new storyline, though frankly, I think Benjamin Britten had the right of it, cutting and reshaping the music into a more satisfactory whole.

On 6 August 2024, Purcell's The Fairy Queen was presented at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms in a semi-staging by choreographer Mourad Merzouki which was a collaboration between Les Arts Florissants and Merzouki's Companie Käfig. Paul Agnew conducted Les Arts Florissants with singers from their young artist scheme, Le Jardin des Voix, Paulina Francisco, Georgia Burashko, Rebecca Leggett, Juliette Mey, Ilja Aksionov, Rodrigo Carreto, Hugo Herman-Wilson and Benjamin Schiilperoort, and eight dancers from Companie Käfig, Baptiste Coppin, Samuel Florimond, Anahi Passi, Alary-Youra Ravin, Daniel Saad and Timothée Zig.

Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Les Arts Florissants, singers from Le Jardin des Voix, dancers from Companie Käfig - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Chris Christodoulou)

The 29-strong instrumental ensemble, led by Augusta McKay Lodge, was pushed to the rear of the stage with the front area being taken over by the staging. Costumes by Claire Schirck were uniform, black suits and white shirts in the first half, with coloured shirts in the second half, and lighting by Fabrice Sarcy brought out the theatrical nature of the undertaking.