Beginners, Please! - Your Guide to the Proms 2007 Season
If you've never been to a Prom before - and even if you have - it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount and variety of the music in the 72 main concerts, and the host of additional events which make up the season.
Where to start? Well, if you're planning to attend a live concert, listen on BBC Radio 3 or over the Internet - or watch the broadcasts on TV - this Guide will help you find what interests you. Look down the list of headings and click to find a selection of concerts we've chosen to point you in the right direction.
And if you want to come along, when you've made your choices, click on the How to Book link for box office details. No matter which concerts you choose, you'll find the same unique, friendly atmosphere at every event: there's no dress code - you'll be in company with hundreds of other music lovers simply intent on enjoying the music. There is nothing quite like the BBC Proms, anywhere in the world - come in, or tune in, and be part of it!
We'll start with some short-cuts to other pages. These will tell you how to book, how to find the special family events which are such a popular feature of the Proms, and where to find composers or artists whom you're keen on.
Further down the page are our selections, which this year include guides to some of this year's themes: words and music (Shakespeare, W H Auden and William Blake), Elgar and Sibelius. But don't just take our word for it - the What's On section of the website gives full details of all the concerts, if you can't find what you're looking for here.
Classical music can be bewildering in its variety for people who're new to it. Here's a selection of music to get you started, including pieces which are best-known!
The best way to get to know the Proms is to join the Promenaders, standing for the concerts in the Royal Albert Hall's famous arena. Here's a selection of concerts we've chosen with young people especially in mind.
Last year's Saturday Matinée concerts at Cadogan Hall were a runaway success, and they're back again this year. Matinées are ideal if travelling in the evenings is a problem; and afternoon concerts allow you to shop in the morning and be home in time for dinner. The music? Four chamber orchestra concerts of popular repertoire.
Symphonies offer composers their biggest musical challenges, and for audiences, the rewards are just as great. From the Classical period of Mozart and Haydn, through Beethoven's revolutionary music, the greatest 19th century symphonies and the re-invention of the genre in the 20th and 21st centuries - the entire history of the symphony is covered every year at the Proms. Here is a selection of great symphonies which have special names!
Vital to Britain's reputation as one of the world's great musical nations is the fact that so many people sing in choirs - church choirs, gospel choirs, chamber choirs, symphony choirs, madrigal choirs, jazz, opera and musicals choruses, and barber-shop. From specialist Baroque repertoire to the big symphonic block-busters, choir music has enormous powder to thrill, especially in the Royal Albert Hall when the mighty organ adds its voice to the orchestra. There's a big strand of vocal and choral music in the Proms this year - try these concerts!
For many music lovers, a concerto, which allows soloists to dazzle with their skill and virtuosity, is the high point of the concert. All the world's soloists like to perform to the Proms audience, famed for its powers of concentration and enthusiasm for the music. Here's a selection of the most popular concertos for the 2007 season.
This year, Glyndebourne Festival Opera supports the Shakespeare theme with its production of Verdi's Macbeth; and the Proms performance of Wagner's epic Ring cycle of operas concludes with Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Here are your diary dates for opera at the Proms:
Although designed for large orchestras and choirs, the Royal Albert Hall adapts well to smaller Baroque ensembles, because the ear soon attunes to lighter textures in the hall. Here are some of the Baroque highlights of the season.
Every year the Proms presents world premieres (wp), UK premieres (ukp), London premieres (londonp) and important revivals of music by leading composers of today. Here's a selection of concerts including some commissioned works for which the ink is barely dry!
This year, to celebrate 80 years of the BBC's association with the Proms, we revisit some pieces which the Proms have introduced to London, the UK or the world during that time. Here is a selection:
Alongside what might be described as 'serious classics', the Proms has always championed not only the entertainment value of classical music, but also the type of popular concert which is primarily intended to be entertaining! If you prefer your music on the lighter side, start here!
Cadogan Hall is now firmly embedded in the affections of Proms goers - it's an ideal venue for the Proms series of Chamber Music concerts. Historically, the idea of chamber music was to present soloists and small ensembles in more intimate surroundings than a large hall, hence 'chamber' music. These days, chamber music is performed in large venues and the reason is audience demand for music which can be relied on to cast a spell: it's because of the physical closeness of listeners and performers - everyone is drawn into the same communication loop; it's hugely satisfying and worth taking the plunge if you're new to it. Proms Chamber Music is on Monday lunchtimes at Cadogan Hall, throughout the season, and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Shakespeare's plays - which include 300 musical stage directions - have inspired 1,500 composers and spawned 200 operas (not all of them good!) But this year's Proms bring you Shakespeare's inspiration in everything from opera to jazz.
Elgar was born 150 years ago this year. Regarded as a kind of 'Bard of Imperial Britain', as time goes on we're learning that Elgar's life was in fact more of a struggle for acceptance from very humble beginnings.
Constant Lambert declared that Sibelius was the greatest symphonic writer since Beethoven. His music remains hard to categorise: Sibelius is in an individual composer with a powerful, uniquely Scandinavian voice.
Strauss wrote an entire opera consisting of a debate over whether words or music were more important! Words play a seminal part in the programming of this year's Proms, with anniversaries of William Blake and W H Auden marked in music from Parry to Leonard Bernstein and Benjamin Britten.
Classical music can be bewildering in its variety for people who're new to it. Here's a selection of music to get you started, including pieces which are best-known!
The best way to get to know the Proms is to join the Promenaders, standing for the concerts in the Royal Albert Hall's famous arena. Here's a selection of concerts we've chosen with young people especially in mind.
Last year's Saturday Matinée concerts at Cadogan Hall were a runaway success, and they're back again this year. Matinées are ideal if travelling in the evenings is a problem; and afternoon concerts allow you to shop in the morning and be home in time for dinner. The music? Four chamber orchestra concerts of popular repertoire.
Symphonies offer composers their biggest musical challenges, and for audiences, the rewards are just as great. From the Classical period of Mozart and Haydn, through Beethoven's revolutionary music, the greatest 19th century symphonies and the re-invention of the genre in the 20th and 21st centuries - the entire history of the symphony is covered every year at the Proms. Here is a selection of great symphonies which have special names!
Vital to Britain's reputation as one of the world's great musical nations is the fact that so many people sing in choirs - church choirs, gospel choirs, chamber choirs, symphony choirs, madrigal choirs, jazz, opera and musicals choruses, and barber-shop. From specialist Baroque repertoire to the big symphonic block-busters, choir music has enormous powder to thrill, especially in the Royal Albert Hall when the mighty organ adds its voice to the orchestra. There's a big strand of vocal and choral music in the Proms this year - try these concerts!
For many music lovers, a concerto, which allows soloists to dazzle with their skill and virtuosity, is the high point of the concert. All the world's soloists like to perform to the Proms audience, famed for its powers of concentration and enthusiasm for the music. Here's a selection of the most popular concertos for the 2007 season.
This year, Glyndebourne Festival Opera supports the Shakespeare theme with its production of Verdi's Macbeth; and the Proms performance of Wagner's epic Ring cycle of operas concludes with Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Here are your diary dates for opera at the Proms:
Although designed for large orchestras and choirs, the Royal Albert Hall adapts well to smaller Baroque ensembles, because the ear soon attunes to lighter textures in the hall. Here are some of the Baroque highlights of the season.
Every year the Proms presents world premieres (wp), UK premieres (ukp), London premieres (londonp) and important revivals of music by leading composers of today. Here's a selection of concerts including some commissioned works for which the ink is barely dry!
This year, to celebrate 80 years of the BBC's association with the Proms, we revisit some pieces which the Proms have introduced to London, the UK or the world during that time. Here is a selection:
Alongside what might be described as 'serious classics', the Proms has always championed not only the entertainment value of classical music, but also the type of popular concert which is primarily intended to be entertaining! If you prefer your music on the lighter side, start here!
Cadogan Hall is now firmly embedded in the affections of Proms goers - it's an ideal venue for the Proms series of Chamber Music concerts. Historically, the idea of chamber music was to present soloists and small ensembles in more intimate surroundings than a large hall, hence 'chamber' music. These days, chamber music is performed in large venues and the reason is audience demand for music which can be relied on to cast a spell: it's because of the physical closeness of listeners and performers - everyone is drawn into the same communication loop; it's hugely satisfying and worth taking the plunge if you're new to it. Proms Chamber Music is on Monday lunchtimes at Cadogan Hall, throughout the season, and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Shakespeare's plays - which include 300 musical stage directions - have inspired 1,500 composers and spawned 200 operas (not all of them good!) But this year's Proms bring you Shakespeare's inspiration in everything from opera to jazz.
Elgar was born 150 years ago this year. Regarded as a kind of 'Bard of Imperial Britain', as time goes on we're learning that Elgar's life was in fact more of a struggle for acceptance from very humble beginnings.
Constant Lambert declared that Sibelius was the greatest symphonic writer since Beethoven. His music remains hard to categorise: Sibelius is in an individual composer with a powerful, uniquely Scandinavian voice.
Strauss wrote an entire opera consisting of a debate over whether words or music were more important! Words play a seminal part in the programming of this year's Proms, with anniversaries of William Blake and W H Auden marked in music from Parry to Leonard Bernstein and Benjamin Britten.
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