Clik here to view.
Cleveland Orchestra/ Welser-Möst, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe Missa Solemnis, great masterpiece though it is, seemed an odd work for the Cleveland Orchestra to tour for its second Proms appearance. Beethoven's dense textures in this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RCO/Jansons; The Sixteen, Royal Albert Hall, London
/ Royal Albert Hall, LondonLike the Cleveland Orchestra before it, the first of the Royal Concertgebouw's two Proms was devoted to a single Mahler symphony. But where the Cleveland's account of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Classical: Proms 59, 60, 62, 63 | RSNO/Robertson
There were last-minute glitches and no-shows, and the Concertgebouw put the Cleveland in the shade, but this has been another fine Proms, says Anthony HoldenProms 59, 60, 62, 63Royal Albert Hall,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RCO/Jansons, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonAudiences are unpredictable things. This concert should have been one of the hottest tickets of this Proms season, with the Concertgebouw playing Brahms's First Symphony under...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Juilliard/ORAM/Davis, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonStudents from two major conservatories, London's Royal Academy of Music and New York's Juilliard School, came together in the orchestra for this Prom. Conductor Colin Davis...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BBCSO/Conlon, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonAlexander Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau (The Little Mermaid), the opening work in James Conlon's Prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, is something of a puzzle. Many have viewed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bach to basics
Mark Padmore is about to perform in the St John Passion without a conductor - in true baroque style. By Erica JealLast spring the tenor Mark Padmore was singing in Bach's St Matthew Passion at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BBCNOW/ Gamba, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonAlan Rawsthorne was not one of the giants of 20th-century music, and there's only room for one British composer's anniversary at a time. But, even if his centenary has been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COE/Adès, BBC Singers & Nash Ensembles, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonThomas Adès's new violin concerto, his first significant work since last year's The Tempest, comes with a typically laconic programme note by the composer, though the piece...
View ArticleClik here to view.
VPO/Mehta, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonTwo of the defining works of 20th-century music featured in the Vienna Philharmonic's first Prom: Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Berg's Wozzeck, the latter in the form of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Proms hardly missed a beat after bombs
As the Proms season draws to a close with the traditional flag waving on Saturday, audience figures show that the festival survived the early bomb-induced dip in attendances and recovered strongly in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vienna Philharmonic/Eschenbach, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonIt should have been one of the highlights of the Proms season: Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, arguably the pinnacle of all 19th-century symphonies, played by the Vienna...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Helsinki Philharmonic/Salonen, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonFrom the Wreckage is Mark-Anthony Turnage's new trumpet concerto, written for the Swedish virtuoso Hakan Hardenberger, who gave the UK premiere on Friday with the Helsinki...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Leader: In praise of... The Proms
Let us first salute Robert Newman, since without him the past eight often wonderful weeks would never have happened. It was he who devised what became, in honour of his conductor, the Henry Wood...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BBCSO and Chorus/Daniel, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonThis year's Last Night of the Proms was a pageant of sea-faring Britishness, the climax of the nautical theme that has run throughout the whole season. Conductor Paul Daniel,...
View ArticleWOP/Gergiev, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe World Orchestra for Peace is the classiest kind of pick-up band. Formed by Georg Solti in 1995 for a concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, it draws...
View ArticleBBCPO/Noseda, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonWe don't get to hear Liszt's Faust Symphony nearly as often as we should. First performed in 1857, it is one of the defining works of high Romanticism and constitutes the most...
View ArticleVerdi's Requiem, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonVerdi's Requiem has been fairly ubiquitous this summer, though it could also be argued that its various outings have failed to do it justice. Colin Davis's performance in St...
View ArticleZTO/Zinman, Royal Albert Hall, London
Royal Albert Hall, LondonNo opening bars in the orchestral repertoire are as stunning as Strauss's blazing depiction of the rising sun at the start of his tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra. Yet the...
View ArticleCleveland O/ Welser-Möst; BBCSO/ Robertson, Royal Albert Hall, London
/ 4 stars Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe Proms' 80th birthday celebration for Pierre Boulez - a late-night concert given by the BBC Singers and Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson before a...
View Article
