BBC Proms 2023

Tuesday 22nd August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 49: Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri.

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Schumann's Paradise and the Peri, with soloists including Lucy Crowe and Magdalena Kožená. Presented by Tom Service, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri. Lucy Crowe (soprano), Jeanine De Bique (soprano), Magdalena Kožená (mezzo), Andrew Staples (tenor), Linard Vrielink (tenor), Florian Boesch (baritone), London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Simon Rattle. c.8.20 Interval. Tom Service is joined by musicologist and Oxford University Professor Laura Tunbridge to talk about Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri.
(Live)

Wednesday 23rd August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:00 to 22:15 (3 hours and 15 minutes long)

Prom 50: Handel's Samson.

Laurence Cummings directs the Academy of Ancient Music in Handel's oratorio Samson, with Allan Clayton in the title role. Presented by Hannah French, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Handel: Samson. Allan Clayton (tenor: Samson), Jacquelyn Stucker (soprano: Dalila), Joélle Harvey (soprano: Israelite woman), Jess Dandy (contralto: Micah), Brindley Sherratt (bass: JonHarapha), Jonathan Lemalu (bass-baritone: Manoa), Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, harpsichord/director Laurence Cummings. During the interval, Suzanne Aspden, professor of music at Oxford, talks to Hannah French about the background to Handel's oratorio.
(Live)

Friday 25th August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 18:30 to 21:15 (2 hours and 45 minutes long)

Prom 52: The Boston Symphony Orchestra play Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.

Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in music by Julia Adolphe, Strauss and Prokofiev. Presented by Tom Service, live from the Royal Albert Hall in London. Boston Symphony Orchestra, conductor Andris Nelsons. Julia Adolphe: Makeshift Castle (European premiere). Strauss: Death and Transfiguration. 8.35pm Interval. Tom Service is joined by Russian-born British musicologist and Cambridge University Professor Marina Frolova-Walker to talk about Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony. 9.00pm Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 in B flat.
(Live)

Saturday 26th August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 55: Gershwin's Piano Concerto.

Kate Molleson presents live from the Royal Albert Hall as violiniist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andris Nelsons. Thibaudet is the soloist in Gershwin's Piano Concerto, with its bluesy slow movement and hot, frenzied finale, while Ravel's La valse dances to the edge of the abyss, and Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka projects the earthy rhythms and bold colours of Russian folk music. The concert opens with the European premiere of US composer Carlos Simon's Four Black American Dances, drawing on dances that chart the black American experience from slavery through to today. Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances (European premiere); Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version). 8.20 Interval. 8.45 Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F; Ravel: La valse. Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons (conductor).
(Live)

Sunday 27th August 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 14:00 to 16:00 (2 hours long)

Proms at Truro.

Al Ryan presents live from Hall for Cornwall in Truro, with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective pairing Schubert's sparkling Trout Quintet with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's sunny and melodious Nonet. One of the UK's starriest groups, the ensemble make their Proms debut with two of the sunniest, most melodious and warm-hearted works in the chamber repertoire. They round off their concert with artistic director and pianist Tom Poster's own arrangements of a group of songs by George Gershwin, one of America's most celebrated melodists. 2.00 Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, D667, Trout. c 2.45 Interval: Writing and Place. Joan Passey talks to writers Wyl Menmuir and Natasha Carthew about the impact of the Cornish landscape and seascape on their work. 3.05 Coleridge-Taylor: Nonet in F minor, Op 2, Gershwin. arr. Poster: Songs. Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective - Armand Dijkoloum (oboe), Cristina Mateo Sáez (clarinet), Guylaine Eckersley (bassoon), Ben Goldscheider (horn), Elena Urioste (violin), Rosalind Ventris (viola), Tony Rymer (cello), Joseph Conyers (double bass), Tom Poster (piano).
(Live)

Sunday 27th August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 56: Rattle Conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Penny Gore present live from the Royal Albert Hall as Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Ninth Symphony and Poulenc's Figure humaine in his final UK performance as the LSO's music director. In Mahler's Ninth Symphony the composer - who would not live to hear its premiere - bid `farewell to all whom he loved". The words `Leb' wohl!" (farewell) are written onto the score itself, transformed into a theme that becomes the heartbeat of the whole work. It's a poignant choice for Simon Rattle's final UK performance as music director of the orchestra as death and life collide in a symphony haunted by loss, but urgently clinging to dance and song. The finale, however, looks beyond, closing with a vision of distant hills where the sun is shining. Opening the Prom is Poulenc's choral masterpiece Figure humaine, a hymn to freedom from occupied France, performed by the BBC Singers. Poulenc: Figure humaine. 7.50 Interval. In conversation with Penny, William Mival explores the background and genesis of Mahler's Symphony No 9. Mahler: Symphony No 9. BBC Singers, London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle (conductor).
(Live)

Wednesday 30th August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 59: Dvorak's 'New World' Symphony.

The Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich performs Tchaikovsky's passionate Violin Concerto with soloist Augustin Hadelich, and Dvorak's nostalgic 'New World' Symphony. Presented by Ian Skelly, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Beethoven: Overture 'The Consecration of the House'. Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major. 8.15 Interval. In conversation with Ian Skelly, Nigel Simeone explores the combination of New and Old World influences behind Dvorak's evergreen symphony. Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, 'From the New World'. Augustin Hadelich (violin), Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Paavo Jarvi (conductor).
(Live)

Thursday 31st August 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 60: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Weill and Rachmaninov. Kirill Gerstein joins them for Thomas Adès's Piano Concerto, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Weill: Little Threepenny Music. Thomas Adès: Piano Concerto. 8.20pm Interval Martin Handley talks to tonight's pianist Kirill Gerstein about Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3 in A minor. Kirill Gerstein (piano), Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski (conductor).
(Live)

Friday 1st September 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 61: Chineke! perform Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.

Anthony Parnther conducts Chineke! Orchestra in music by Valerie Coleman, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Haydn and Beethoven. Presented by Linton Stephens, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Valerie Coleman: Seven O'Clock Shout. Coleridge-Taylor: Four Noveletten for String Orchestra, Op. 52. Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E flat major. 8.20pm Interval: Poet Yomi Sode, author of a collection called Manorism, has collaborated with Chineke! Orchestra in the past. He joins Linton Stephens to discuss his writing and his interest in music. 8.40pm Perkinson: Sinfonietta No. 1 - Rondo Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major. Aaron Azunda Akugbo (trumpet), Chineke! Orchestra, Anthony Parnther (conductor). Europe's first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra returns to the Proms with Beethoven's joyful Fourth Symphony and Haydn's exuberant Trumpet Concerto. On a mission to champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music, Chineke! also showcases music by pioneering Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his American namesake, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Plus, there's an opportunity to hear Valerie Coleman's pandemic anthem, Seven O'Clock Shout.
(Live)

Saturday 2nd September 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 63: The Rite by Heart.

Katie Derham presents live from the Royal Albert Hall as Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra in Stravinsky's groundbreaking The Rite of Spring. A vision was the inspiration for Stravinsky's ballet, which caused a riot at its premiere in 1913. This Prom is an unprecedented opportunity to get under the skin of the work that shook the worlds of music and ballet with its stamping, jagged rhythms and modern harmony. Nicholas Collon and the pioneering Aurora Orchestra dramatise the Rite's origins, reliving the scene of its notorious concert premiere and finally performing the whole thing from memory. Various Artists: A dramatic and musical exploration of Stravinksy's The Rite of Spring. c 8.15 Interval. c 8.35 Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. Charlotte Ritchie (actor), Karl Queensborough (actor), Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon (conductor).
(Live)

Sunday 3rd September 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 14:00 to 16:00 (2 hours long)

Proms at Perth.

A live recital from Perth Concert Hall in which pianist Steven Osborne joins the award-winning Heath Quartet in a chamber concert of classical traditions and reinventions. Haydn's first mature set of quartets was written for the brilliant young leader of the Esterházy orchestra, Luigi Tomasini and showcases his virtuosic panache in these concerto-style first violin parts. Steven Osborne, a leading champion of the music of Michael Tippett, performs his short second piano sonata which quotes from his opera King Priam and whose abrupt contrasts and biting harmonies reflect on the harsh realities of war. Steven Osborne and the Heath Quartet come together in Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor premiered in 1940 by the composer himself and the Beethoven Quartet. It harks back to classical forms and heralds the dark clouds of war which loomed large at the time. String Quartet Op 9 No 1. Tippett: Piano Sonata No 2. Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op 57. Heath Quartet, Steven Osborne (piano).
(Live)

Sunday 3rd September 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 16:00 to 22:00 (6 hours long)

Prom 64: Berlioz: The Trojans.

Martin Handley presents live from the Royal Albert Hall as Dinis Sousa conducts his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Monteverdi Choir and a starry line-up of soloists in Berlioz's The Trojans. Few musical spectacles are bigger or more overwhelming than this five-act grand opera retelling the story of the fall of Troy and the doomed love of Dido and Aeneas, which the composer saw as the pinnacle of his career. By turns monumental and heartbreakingly intimate - a cinematic epic before its time - the vast score reshapes Virgil's Aeneid with unprecedented dramatic scope and intensity. Gardiner brings a lifetime's love of Berlioz to the music, with the help of an outstanding cast that includes British mezzo Alice Coote and American tenor Michael Spyres. Berlioz: The Trojans - Acts 1 and 2. c 5.30 Interval 1. Jeremy Sams talks to Martin about how Berlioz came to write The Trojans and tells the story of its tortuous and frustrated journey to the stage. Plus, a sequence of music drawn from examples Berlioz cites in his 1843 Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, the landmark textbook promoting the craft of orchestration and explaining the technical aspects and special character of each orchestral instrument. c 6.10 The Trojans - Acts 3 and 4 c 7 55 Interval 2. Classicist Natalie Haynes joins Martin to discuss what we know about the history of Troy and the myths it has produced. c 8.25 The Trojans - Act 5. Laurence Kilsby (tenor: Iopas & Hylas), Rebecca Evans (soprano: Hècube), Alex Rosen (bass: Hector/Sentinelle II), Alice Coote (mezzo: Cassandra), Michael Spyres (tenor: Aeneas), Paula Murrihy (mezzo: Dido), Lionel Lhote (baritone: Coroebus), Adèle Charvet (soprano: Ascanius), William Thomas (bass: Narbal), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone: Panthus), Beth Taylor (contralto: Anna), Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Dinis Sousa (conductor).
(Live)

Monday 4th September 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 22:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

Prom 65: Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents live from the Royal Albert Hall as Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. The composer described the finale of his symphony - the last he would ever complete - as the most significant movement of his life. It's the culmination of a career, perhaps even of an era, music of `blazing calm" and impossible grandeur in which the shattering terror of the opening finally finds not just resolution but transcendence. BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Semyon Bychkov. Bruckner: Symphony No 8 in C minor (1890 version, ed Nowak).
(Live)

Thursday 7th September 2023 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:00 to 21:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Prom 69: Mozart's Requiem.

Raphaël Pichon conducts Pygmalion and soloists Erin Morley, Beth Taylor, Laurence Kilsby and Alex Rosen in Mozart's last masterpiece, his incomplete Requiem. Presented by Hannah French, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Trad.: Plainsong 'In paradisum'. Mozart: Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr), interspersed with: Ach, zu kurz ist unsers Lebenslauf. Masonic Funeral Music. Kyrie in D minor, K 90. Thamos, King of Egypt - 'Ne pulvis et cinis'. Five Solfeggios - No 2. Quis te comprehendat. Two Church Songs - No 2: 'O Gottes Lamm'. Erin Morley (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Alex Rosen (bass). Pygmalion. Raphaël Pichon (conductor). There will be no interval .Raphaël Pichon and his exciting ensemble Pygmalion present an alternative vision of Mozart's Requiem, famously left incomplete at the composer's death. Tonight's reimagining swells the popular completion by Mozart's pupil Süssmayr with additional pieces to create a compelling alternative sequence.
(Live)