What's On / Music Guide
Your Guide to the Proms 2008 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 76 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, go to 'How to Book' 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.
Below are our selections, which this year include guides to some of this year's themes: Vaughan Williams, Messian and the organ. But don't just take our word for it - the Proms by Day pages give full details of all the concerts, if you can't find what you're looking for here.
Classical, for Starters
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!
- 22/7 PROM 7 Rossini's William Tell Overture and Elgar's Symphony No .1.
- 23/7 PROM 9 Mendelssohn's Symphony No .4 and Brahms's 2nd Piano Concerto.
- 29/7 PROM 16 Bruch's Violin Concerto and Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel.
- 07/08 PROM 28 Smetana's Vltava and Dvořák's Symphony No. 8.
- 12/08 PROM 35 Elgar's In the South and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade.
- 27/08 PROM 55 Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé.
- 29/8 PROM 58 Ravel's Mother Goose and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4.
- 4/09 PROM 66 Elgar's Sea Pictures and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6.
- 6/09 PROM 69 Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 and Debussy's La Mer.
Great Sounds
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.
- 20/7 PROMS 4,5 Folk Day.
- 27/7 PROM 13 Doctor Who Prom.
- 30/7 PROM 17 World Music Celebration.
- 8/8 PROM 30 Michael Torke, John Adams, Bernstein and Ellington
- 9/8 PROM 31 Gershwin, Jason Yarde, Bernstein and Gwilym Simcock.
- 20/8 PROM 46 Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet (complete).
Symphonies - All in a Name
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!
- 21/7 PROM 6 Saint-Saëns' Symphony No.3 ('Organ').
- 23/7 PROM 9 Mendelssohn's Symphony No.4 ('Italian').
- 13/8 PROM 37 Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
- 18/8 PROM 44 Beethoven's Symphony No.6 ('Pastoral').
- 4/9 PROM 66 Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 (Pathétique).
- 10/9 PROM 73 Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica.
- 11/9 PROM 74 Mahler's Symphony No.1 ('Titan').
- 12/9 PROM 75 Beethoven's Symphony No.9 ('Choral').
In Choirs and Places
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 Medieval and Baroque repertoire to the big symphonic block-busters, and technically challenging contemporary pieces, choir music has enormous power 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!
- 19/7 PROM 2 Finzi's Intimations of Immortality.
- 22/7 PROM 8 Masses by Obrecht and Josquin des Prez.
- 26/7 PROM 12 Musorgsky: Scenes from Boris Godunov, and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances.
- 2/8 PROM 21 Stockhausen's Stimmung.
- 5/8 PROM 26 The King's Singers: Madrigals, Victorian part-songs, English folksongs.
- 10/8 PROM 32 Manchicourt's Missa 'Veni Creator Spiritus' and Messiaen organ music
- 12/8 PROM 36 Rachmaninov's All-night vigil (Vespers).
- 15/8 PROM 40 Janáček Glagolitic Mass.
- 16/8 PROM 41 Handel's Belshazzar.
- 17/8 PROM 43 Vaughan Williams's Flos Campi and Beethoven's Mass in C.
- 24/8 PROM 51 Bach's St John Passion.
- 27/8 PROM 56 Sir John Tavener's Cantus Mysticus, and The Whale.
- 31/8 PROM 61 Verdi's Requiem.
- 10/9 PROM 73 Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Antartica and Holst's The Planets.
- 12/9 PROM 75 Beethoven's Elegische Gesänge and Symphony No.9 ('Choral').
- 13/9 PROM 76 Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and traditional Last Night musics.
Concerto Central
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 2008 season.
- 18/7 PROM 1 Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C , K314 (with Nicholas Daniel).
- 19/7 PROM 2 Elgar's Violin Concerto (with Nigel Kennedy).
- 22/7 PROM 7 Haydn's Cello Concerto in C (with Jean-Guihen Queyras).
- 23/7 PROM 9 Brahms's Piano Concerto No.2 (with Lars Vogt).
- 26/7 PROM 12 Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.1 (with Louis Lortie).
- 29/7 PROM 16 Bruch's Violin Concerto (with Janine Jansen).
- 1/8 PROM 19 Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 (with Paul Lewis).
- 5/8 PROM 25 Brahms's Violin Concerto (with Julia Fischer)
- 8/8 PROM 29 Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Olga Kern).
- 28/8 PROM 57 Gershwin's Piano Concerto (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet).
- 1/9 PROM 62 Beethoven's Violin Concerto (with Nicolaj Znaider).
- 6/9 PROM 69 Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 (with Stephen Hough).
For Opera Fans
This year's Proms season features operas great and small, from the Baroque to full-blown Romanticism and 20th-century music theatre pieces. Look out also for orchestral music from Wagner's operas: Tristan und Isolde (PROM 64) and Parsifal (PROM 75)
- 26/7 PROM 12 Sir John Tomlinson sings Boris's Monologue and Death Scene from Musorgsky's Boris Godunov .
- 28/7 PCM2 I Fagiolini perform two Monteverdi Balli, and his Lamento d'Arianna.
- 31/7 PROM 18 Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (Glyndebourne).
- 11/8 PROM 34 Puccini's Il tabarro.
- 14/8 PROM 39 Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat.
- 21/8 PROM 47 Janáček's Osud.
- 5/9 PROM 68 Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchei the Immortal
- 7/9 PROM 70 Messiaen's Saint Francis of Assisi (Netherlands Opera)
The Early Bird
Although designed for large orchestras and choirs, the Royal Albert Hall adapts well to smaller ensembles, because the ear soon attunes to lighter textures in the hall. Here are some of the early music highlights of the season.
- 22/7 PROM 8 Masses by Obrecht and Josquin des Prez.
- 28/7 PCM2 I Fagiolini perform two Monteverdi Balli, and his Lamento d'Arianna.
- 31/7 PROM 18 Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppaea (Glyndebourne).
- 5/8 PROM 26 French Renaissance Madrigals, with the King's Singers.
- 10/8 PROM 32 Manchicourt's Missa 'Veni Creator Spiritus' and Messiaen organ music.
- 16/8 PROM 41 Handel's Belshazzar.
- 18/8 PCM5 Early music for theorbo and viola da gamba.
- 24/8 PROM 50 Simon Preston performs organ music by J S Bach.
- 24/8 PROM 51 Bach's St John Passion.
- 24/8 PROM 52 Jian Wang performs J S Bach's solo cello suites Nos.1-3.
- 25/8 PCM6 French Baroque chamber music, with Les Talens Lyriques.
What's New
Every year the Proms presents world premieres (wp), UK premieres (ukp), 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!
- 18/7 PROM 1: Elliott Carter's Catenaires (ukp).
- 24/7 PROM 10: Bax's In Memoriam (first public performance).
- 25/7 PROM 11: Simon Holt's Troubled Light (wp).
- 1/8 PROM 19: Kenneth Hesketh's Graven Image (wp).
- 2/8 PROM 20: Stockhausen's Cosmic Pulses (ukp) and Harmonien (wp).
- 8/8 PROM 29: Chen Yi's Olympic Fire (wp)
- 9/8 PROM 31: Gwilym Simcock's Progressions (wp); Gershwin, arr.Jason Yarde: My man's gone now, from 'Porgy and Bess' (wp); Jason Yarde: Rhythm and other Fascinations (wp).
- 10/8 PROM 33: Michael Berkeley's Slow Dawn (world premiere of new version); Stuart MacRae's Gaudete (wp).
- 13/8 PROM 37: Anders Hillborg's Clarinet Concerto (Peacock Tales) (ukp).
- 18/8 PROM 44: Elliott Carter's Soundings (ukp).
- 19/8 PROM 45: Jonathan Harvey - Speakings (ukp).
- 22/8 PROM 48: Schubert orchestrations by David Matthews, Colin Matthews and Detlev Glanert (wp).
- 27/8 PROM 55: Peter Eötvös's Seven (ukp).
- 27/8 PROM 56: Sir John Tavener's Cantus Mysticus (ukp).
- 28/8 PROM 57: Steven Stucky's Rhapsodies (wp).
- 30/8 PROM 59: Magnus Lindberg's Seht die Sonne (ukp).
- 8/9 PROM PCM8: Huw Watkins: new work (wp).
- 13/9 PROM 76: Anna Meredith: new work (wp).
Small and Perfectly Formed
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.
- 21/7 PCM1 Schumann, Carter, Messiaen and Bartók, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano).
- 28/7 PCM2 I Fagiolini perform two Monteverdi Balli, and his Lamento d'Arianna.
- 4/8 PCM3 Grieg and Tchaikovsky, with Julia Fischer (violin) and Yakov Kreizberg (piano).
- 11/8 PCM4 Messiaen's Harawi, with Gweneth-Ann Jeffers (soprano) and Simon Lepper (piano).
- 18/8 PCM5 Early music for theorbo and viola da gamba, with Rolf Lislevand and Jordi Savall
- 25/8 PCM6 French Baroque chamber music, with Les Talens Lyriques
- 1/9 PCM7 Coleridge-Taylor and Vaughan Williams, with Mark Padmore (tenor) and the Nash Ensemble.
- 8/9 PCM8 Strauss, Fauré, Watkins, with Elizabeth Watts (soprano) and the Aronowitz Ensemble.
Sunday Afternoon Concerts
The Proms' popular Afternoon Concerts continue this year on Sundays at the Royal Albert Hall. Matinées are ideal if travelling in the evenings is a problem. What could be better than a walk in Hyde Park, an afternoon concert, and home in time for dinner? This year, the majority of concerts focus on the Royal Albert Hall's magnificent Willis organ.
- 3/8 PROM 22 Wayne Marshall plays organ music by Demessieux, Messiaen, Dupré, Hakim, and an improvisation.
- 10/8 PROM 32 Manchicourt's Missa 'Veni Creator Spiritus' and Messiaen organ music.
- 17/8 PROM 42 Jennifer Bate (organ) performs Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur.
- 24/8 PROM 50 Simon Preston performs organ music by J S Bach.
- 31/8 PROM 60 Pianists Lang Lang and Marc Yu perform music by Mozart, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Schubert, Chopin and Liszt.
Heart and Soul - the Music of Vaughan Williams
The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams died 50 years ago. Although he studied with the influential French composer Maurice Ravel, his music is infused with the spirit and sounds of English 16th-century composers, and his own extensive collection of folk-song material. Vaughan Williams wrote rewarding music in every genre, achieving a popularity now gratifyingly renewed following a period in which his music was eclipsed by the postwar developments in European music. From popular hits such as The Lark Ascending to the disturbingly reflective 9th symphony, Vaughan Williams's music never fails to engage.
- 24/7 PROM 10 Symphony No.4.
- 29/7 PROM 16 Symphony No.8.
- 8/8 PROM 29 Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus; Symphony No.6.
- 12/8 PROM 35 Piano Concerto (with Ashley Wass).
- 17/8 PROM 43 Flos Campi.
- 26/8 PROM 54 Vaughan Williams Anniversary Concert.
- 27/8 PROM 55 The Lark Ascending.
- 1/9 PCM7 On Wenlock Edge.
- 10/9 PROM 73 Sinfonia Antartica.
- 13/9 PROM 76 Sea Songs.
Messiaen's Music of the Spirit
2008 marks the birth centenary of the great French composer Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen's music celebrates his profound Catholic faith, human love, and nature especially the world of birds, whose songs he catalogued an turned directly into music. This year's Proms season presents many landmark pieces in Messiaen's prolific output of exciting, richly evocative and always spiritual music.
- 18/7 PROM 1 Dieu parmi nous.
- 21/7 PCM1 L'Alouette Lulu.
- 21/7 PROM 6 L'Ascension (organ), Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.
- 27/7 PROM 14 La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.
- 3/8 PROM 22 Verset pour la Fête de la Dédicace.
- 6/8 PROM 27 L'Ascension (orchestra).
- 10/8 PROM 32 Messe de la Pentecôte
- 11/8 PCM4 Harawi
- 17/8 PROM 42 Apparition de l'église éternelle; La Nativité du Seigneur.
- 1/9 PROM 63 Cinq rechants
- 2/9 PROM 64 Turangalîla Symphony
- 4/9 PROM 67 Quartet for the End of Time
- 7/9 PROM 70 Saint-Francis of Assisi (opera)
Salute to Rachmaninov
Among the composers featured In this year's Proms season is the great Russian pianist-composer, Sergei Rachmaninov. A refugee from the Russian Revolution, he was famous for his soaringly melodic and emotionally charged music. His Second Piano Concerto - with the haunting slow movement used as the soundtrack for the romantic 'weepie' Brief Encounter, is one of the most widely recognised pieces of music in the entire classical repertoire. This year you can discover the many riches of Rachmaninov's music for orchestra, piano and choir.
- 24/7 PROM 10 Piano Concerto No 1 (with Yevgeny Sudbin).
- 1/8 PROM 19 Symphonic Dances.
- 4/8 PROM 24 arr.Wood: Prelude in C sharp minor; Symphony No.2.
- 8/8 PROM 29 Paganini Rhapsody with Olga Kern (piano).
- 11/8 PROM 34 Symphony No.1.
- 12/8 PROM 36 All-night vigil (Vespers).
- 23/8 PROM 49 Piano Concerto No.4 (with Boris Berezovsky).
- 30/8 PROM 59 Piano Concerto No.3 (with Nikolai Lugansky).
- 31/8 PROM 60 Preludes (with Lang Lang (piano).
- 6/9 PROM 69 Piano Concerto No.2 (with Stephen Hough).
The King of Instruments
Mozart famously christened the organ 'the king of instruments'. As such, the Royal Albert Hall's magnificent Henry Willis organ might be dubbed the 'king of kings'. In fact the organ's nickname is 'The Voice of Jupiter' - it has 147 speaking stops, and 9999 pipes, making it the largest concert hall instrument in the UK. Jupiter's voice will be heard throughout the Proms season: in solo recitals, as an accompanying instrument, and with a concerto-like role in Saint-Saëns' famous 'Organ' Symphony, And some of the world's most exciting virtuoso organists will be putting it through its paces - here are the details.
- 18/7 PROM 1 Wayne Marshall: Strauss's Festliches Präludium and Messiaen's Dieu parmi nous.
- 21/7 PROM 6 Olivier Latry performs Messiaen's L'Ascension and Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony.
- 3/8 PROM 22 Wayne Marshall: Music by Demessieux, Messiaen, Dupré, Hakim, and an Improvisation.
- 10/8 PROM 32 James O'Donnell: Messiaen's Messe de la Pentecôte.
- 17/8 PROM 42 Jennifer Bate: Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur.
- 24/8 PROM 50 Simon Preston: Music by J S Bach.
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