Tchaikovsky composed his Sixth Symphony in 1893, the year of his death; he outlived the world premiere in St. Petersburg by only nine days. The title “Pathétique” was given to the work by Tchaikovsky’s borther Modest. It aptly characterizes the work as a symphony of passionate emotions. Tchaikovsky himself considered this work as a climax of his oeuvre, and wrote to his brother Anatole: “I believe it is being born as the best of my works.” To another friend he wrote: “I love it as I have never loved any of my other musical creations.” And the world agreed with him. In spite of the brilliance and excitement of his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, it is clear that the “Pathétique” is the work of a man at last complete master of symphonic form and idiom and, most important of all, master of his own wild emotions.
BBC Proms 2019: Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts Elgar and Weinberg
The CBSO and Music Director Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla celebrate the centenary of Mieczyslaw Weinberg the man Shostakovich hailed as ‘one of the most outstanding composers’ of his day – with a rare performance of his Symphony No. 3, a work that combines folk melodies and dances with confessional urgency. That intensity is shared by Elgar’s passionate Cello Concerto, performed here by 2016 BBC Young Musician winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The concert opens with Dorothy Howell’s radiant tone-poem Lamia (first performed, like Elgar’s concerto, 100 years ago) and also includes The Way to Castle Yonder, a suite from the much-missed Oliver Knussen’s opera Higglety Pigglety Pop! “A performance of surpassing delicacy and refinement” (The Telegraph) PROGRAM Weinberg: Symphony No. 3; Elgar: Cello Concerto; Dorothy Howell: Lamia; Knussen: The Way to Castle Yonde
BBC Proms 2021: Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts the CBSO
The works that the CBSO commissioned to celebrate its centenary last year are finally getting performed. Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel Symphony, based on material from his 2016 opera, was one of them; its London premiere is framed here by two more symphonies, Ruth Gipps’s Second and Brahms’s Third. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla champion the music of a too-long neglected composer. PROGRAM: Gipps: Symphony No. 2; Adès: The Exterminating Angel Symphony; Brahms: Symphony No. 3
BBC Proms 2021: Nicola Benedetti and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
The much-anticipated annual Prom from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain returned 2021 under the baton of one of the most exciting young conductors on the international scene, Jonathon Heyward. The NYO is joined by superstar violinist Nicola Benedetti, performing Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, in a programme that includes specially commissioned music by Laura Jurd and the UK premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Banner. The evening comes to a climax with Beethoven’s Third revolutionary Symphony, the Eroica, which is widely considered a landmark in the transition between the Classical and the Romantic era.PROGRAM: Laura Jurd: Chant; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2; Montgomery: Banner; Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica‘
BBC Proms 2021: Vikingur Olafsson plays Bach and Mozart
Award-winning Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson makes his much-anticipated Proms debut, as soloist in both Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in F minor, whose energised outer movements frame a ravishing central Adagio, and Mozart’s pioneering Piano Concerto K491, a rare minor-key work whose stormy, richly orchestrated music climaxes in a relentless dance. The Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi frame the concert with two symphonies: Prokofiev’s playful ‘Classical’ Symphony, with its clever juxtaposition of traditional forms and contemporary colours, and the more loaded irony of Shostakovich’s compact Symphony No. 9. PROGRAM Prokofiev: Symphony No.1; Bach: Keyboard Concerto; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
BBC Proms 2021: “The 8 Seasons” of Buenos Aires
From an icy Italian winter to the heady, sensual warmth of a South American summer: violinist Joshua Bell leads the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on a musical journey through the sights and sounds of two continents and four very different seasons. Inspired by Vivaldi’s bestknown work, Piazzolla, Argentina’s 20th-century tango king, created his own response, complete with musical quotations. While Vivaldi’s virtuosic concertos celebrate contrast – the freshness of spring, with its sudden thunderstorms, versus the languid heat of summer – Piazzolla’s musical landscape remains more constant, always swaying to the pervasive rhythm of the tango. PROGRAM Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Piazzolla: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
BBC Proms 2021: The Carnival of the Animals
Camille Saint-Saëns, who died 100 years ago, is celebrated in a special family Prom which explores the sounds and rhythms of the Manchester Caribbean Carnival with Revel, a brand new music by Daniel Kidane and narration by Lemn Sissay, before delving into the world of imagination with Saint-Saëns’s muchloved suite The Carnival of the Animals. The seven talented Kanneh-Mason siblings and musical friends are joined by former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo for The Carnival of the Animals. This musical menagerie, packed with braying donkeys, energetic kangaroos, a serene swan and an aquarium of glinting fish, gets a fresh update. PROGRAM: Kidane: Revel, Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals
BBC Proms 2022: Leif Ove Andsnes & Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Leif Ove Andsnes directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard in an all-Mozart programme including two contrasting piano concertos. “Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra collaborated as creative equals, with pristine focus and quicksilver touch.” (The Guardian). PROGRAM Mozart: Overture to “Le nozze di Figaro”, Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466, Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482, Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488 – II. Adagio
BBC Proms 2022: Yuja Wang & Klaus Mäkelä
Superstar pianist Yuja Wang takes centrestage in the first Proms appearance of the Oslo Philharmonic under its new Chief Conductor Klaus Makëlä. Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben ends the concert in roof-raising style. “Boundless imagination matched to phenomenal technique made something far more fascinating than usual of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto.” (The Arts Desk) / “It was all something of a revelation […] Stunning, all of it.” (The Guardian) PROGRAM: Sibelius: Tapiola; Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1; Vladimir Horowitz: Variations on a Theme from Bizet’s Carmen; Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orfeo ed Euridice; R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; J. Strauss II: Csárdás from Ritter Pásmán.
BBC Proms 2022: Marin Alsop conducts RSO Vienna
Marin Alsop and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra are joined by Proms regular and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Benjamin Grosvenor for Prokofiev’s ferociously demanding Piano Concerto No. 3. ‘My new symphony,’ wrote Dvorák of his Seventh, ‘must … make a stir in the world.’ The result does just that, emerging from a brooding opening into rhapsodic warmth, animated by folk dances and a seemingly endless stream of melodies. This contrasts with the deliciously grotesque episodes of Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin suite; and the orchestra and conductor also bring a new work by Viennese composer Hannah Eisendle, having given its world premiere in March 2022. PROGRAM: Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin – suite 19’; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major; Hannah Eisendle: Heliosis 8’; Dvorák: Symphony No. 7 in D minor