The BBC broadcast the Last Night at the Proms for the first time on Saturday the 6th of September 1947

First Broadcast

Neville Marriner conducts leader Kenneth Sillito and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Fri 12 Aug 1983 at Royal Albert Hall

Prom 21: Sir Neville Marriner at the Proms

Dvořák - Overture 'Carnival'

R. Strauss - Concerto for Horn No. 1 in E flat major, Op 11

Vaughan Williams - 5 Mystical Songs

Barber - Toccata festiva, Op 36

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - Ojai Festival Overture

Puccini - Madama Butterfly

Rodgers - Oklahoma! (arr. Robert Russell Bennett)

Cole Porter - Kiss Me, Kate

Sullivan - The Mikado

John Philip Sousa - March 'The Liberty Bell'

Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major ('Land of Hope and Glory') 

Henry Wood - Fantasia on British Sea Songs (with additional Songs arranged by Stephen Jackson)

Parry - Jerusalem

Anonymous - National Anthem (arr. Henry Wood)

Last Night of the Proms

BBC National Orchestra of Wales - conducted by Richard Hickox - performs a new concerto by Michael Berkeley. Soprano Susan Gritton sings four songs by Benjamin Britten, and there is a performance of Vaughan Williams' 1913 work 'A London Symphony'. Live from Royal Albert Hall.

Michael Berkeley, Benjamin Britten and Vaughan Williams

Wednesday 19 July 2006

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto for Piano No. 23 in A major, K 488 BBC Symphony Orchestra Richard Goode piano Jiří Bělohlávek conductor Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D minor BBC Symphony Orchestra Jiří Bělohlávek conductor

Thursday 31 August 2006

Murray Gold - Doctor Who

Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man

Mark-Anthony Turnage - Three Asteroids

Holst - The Planets

Wagner - Die Walküre, WWV 86b

Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2, Op 64b

Ron Grainer - Doctor Who Theme (arr. Murray Gold)

Doctor Who at the Proms

A trio of works from America. Copland's great Third Symphony - with its portrayal of the wide, open spaces of North America - includes a striking reprise of the classic Fanfare for the Common Man at the start of the last movement. The symphony dates from the end of the Second World War and captures something of the sense of optimism of the American people at the time. From 25 years earlier, though sounding far more recent, comes Edgard Varèse's Amériques, whose title, he claimed, was 'symbolic of discoveries, of new worlds on Earth, in the sky or in the minds of men'; the first work that the Frenchman completed after arriving in New York, this still strikingly original score was premiered in Philadelphia by Leopold Stokowski. So too was Rachmaninov's Fourth (and last) Piano Concerto, also composed in the USA, where the composer had settled after leaving Russia in 1917. Rachmaninov himself was the soloist at the 1927 premiere; tonight it's the fearlessly virtuosic Boris Berezovsky.

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

John Wilson and his hand-picked Orchestra celebrate 75 years of MGM musicals with songs from unforgettable movie classics, including The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High Society, Gigi and Singin' in the Rain.

Amazingly, although all the original orchestral parts were lost when the studio destroyed its music library to make way for a car park, Wilson has succeeded in reconstructing the scores by painstakingly transcribing each soundtrack by ear. He is joined by starry singers from the classical and musical theatre worlds, as well as by the elite Maida Vale Singers

Prom 22 - A Celebration of Classic MGM Film Musicals

Prom 59: Tonhalle Orchestra

Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E flat major

'Symphony of a Thousand' (82 mins)

Mardi Byers: soprano

Twyla Robinson: soprano

Malin Christensson: soprano

Stephanie Blythe: mezzo-soprano

Kelley O'Connor: mezzo-soprano

Stefan Vinke: tenor

Hanno Müller-Brachmann: bass-baritone

Tomasz Konieczny: bass

Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral

Choristers of Westminster Abbey

Choristers of Westminster Cathedral

BBC Symphony Chorus

Crouch End Festival Chorus

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jirí Belohlávek conductor

First Night -Mahler Symphony no 8 in E Flat major

Wagner: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

An Opera in Three Acts

Concert staging, sung in German

Bryn Terfel: Hans Sachs

Raymond Very: Walther von Stoltzing

Amanda Roocroft: Eva

Christopher Purves: Beckmesser

Andrew Tortise: David

Anna Burford: Magdalene

David Soar: Nightwatchman

Brindley Sherratt: Pogner

Simon Thorpe: Kothner

David Stout: Nachtigall

Paul Hodges: Schwartz

Rhys Meirion: Zorn

Andrew Rees: Eisslinger

Stephen Rooke: Moser

Arwel Huw Morgan: Foltz

Geraint Dodd: Vogelgesang

Owen Webb: Ortel

Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera

Lothar Koenigs conductor

Wagner - Die Meistersinger

Schumann - Manfred, Op 115 (orch. Gustav Mahler)

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor

Tchaikovsky - Manfred

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - Manfred

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major Alexander Toradze, piano Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major, 'Leningrad' BBC National Orchestra of Wales Thierry Fischer conductor

Britten-Prokofiev-Shostakovich

Doctor Who returns to the Proms with a new show hosted by the stars of the series - Karen Gillan (aka the Doctor's companion Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (aka Rory Williams) and featuring a special guest appearance by Matt Smith (aka the Doctor).

The concert features Murray Gold's music for the television series, including his latest re-imagining of Ron Grainier's classic theme tune performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Philharmonic Choir, soloists Yamit Mamo and Mark Chambers, and conducted by Ben Foster.

With exclusive behind-the-scenes access, specially-edited sequences from the most recent series, a host of monsters laying siege to the Royal Albert Hall and a new scene written especially for the Proms by Steven Moffat and featuring the Time Lord himself, this is an intergalactic musical adventure like no other.

Brett Dean: Amphitheatre (London premiere) (10 mins) Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn – selection (23 mins) Ekaterina Gubanova mezzo-soprano Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor (50 mins) The Australian Youth Orchestra Sir Mark Elder conductor

Dean-Mahler-Shostakovich

Marking the 80th birthday of one of Broadway's great innovators, this ﬁrst ever all-Sondheim Prom draws together leading ﬁgures of the opera and theatre worlds, plus some further special guests.

Bryn Terfel – a magnetic Sweeney Todd, as he proved at the Royal Festival Hall in 2007 – leads a starry cast, joined by aspiring young performers supported by the BBC Performing Arts Fund. On the bill are excerpts from the horror-opera Sweeney Todd, the Ingmar Bergman-inspired A Little Night Music and the fairy-tale compendium of Into the Woods, as well as excerpts from Company, Paciﬁc Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George.

Prom 19 - Sondheim at 80

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor (100 mins)

Karen Cargill: mezzo-soprano

Edinburgh Festival Chorus (women's voices)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles conductor

Sung in German, Fixed subtitles in English, commentary in English

Mahler Symphony No.3 in D minor

Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor World Orchestra for Peace Valery Gergiev conductor

Mahler Symphony No.5 in C-Sharp minor(Gergiev)

Paul Dukas - L' apprenti sorcier

Julian Anderson - Fantasias

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique, Op 14

National Youth Orchestra

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor Encore - Gluck, transcribed Sgambati: Excerpt from Orfeo et Eurydice Nelson Freire: piano Ravel: Daphnis and Chloë – Suite No. 2 BBC Symphony Orchestra Lionel Bringuier conductor Katy Derham, Hostess

Chopin-Ravel

Verdi: La forza del destino – overture (8 mins)

Dallapiccola Partita (27 mins)

Sarah Tynan: soprano

Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor (25 mins)

James Ehnes: violin

Encore - Paganini: Caprice 16

Schumann Symphony No. 4 in D minor (revised version) (38 mins)

BBC Philharmonic

Gianandrea Noseda conductor

Vocals with fixed English subtitles

Commentary in English

Interval cut

Verdi-Dallapiccola-Bruch-Schumann

J. S. Bach, orch. Stokowski:  Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (10 mins)

J. S. Bach, orch. Henry Wood: 'Suite No. 6' - Prelude; Finale (6 mins)

Tarik O'Regan: Latent Manifest (5 mins)

(BBC commission: world premiere)

Walton: The Wise Virgins – suite (21 mins)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Litton conductor

During interval: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, recorded earlier in the day

English Baroque Soloists

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor

Grainger: Blithe Bells (4 mins)

J. S. Bach, arr. Sargent: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 - Air (6 mins)

Alissa Firsova: Bach Allegro (5 mins)

(BBC commission: world premiere)

J. S. Bach, arr. Bantock: Chorale Prelude 'Wachet auf, ruft uns due Stimme', BWV 645 (5 mins)

J. S. Bach, arr. Respighi: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (13 mins)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Litton conductor

Commentary in English

J.S. Bach

Arvo Pärt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (7 mins)

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from 'Peter Grimes' (17 mins)

Huw Watkins: Violin Concerto

(BBC commission: world premiere) (20 mins)

Alina Ibragimova: violin

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor (50 mins)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner conductor

In memoriam Benjamin Britten

The Philharmonia Orchestra play Mosolov's The Foundry, Pärt's Symphony No. 4 "Los Angeles", Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand & Scriabin's The Poem of Ecstasy.

The Philharmonia Orchestra

Oklahoma: excerpts (13 mins) Carousel: excerpts (26 mins) South Pacific: excerpts (17 mins) The King and I: (arr. Edward B. Powell) Overture (6 mins) Flower Drum Song: excerpts (11 mins) The Sound of Music: excerpts (12 mins) Cast includes: Kim Criswell Sierra Boggess Anna-Jane Casey Julian Ovenden Rod Gilfry Maida Vale Singers John Wilson Orchestra John Wilson conductor

A Celebration of Rogers & Hammerstein

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Hammered Out

(BBC co-commission with LA Philharmonic: world premiere) (c15 mins)

Barber: Violin Concerto (25 mins)

Encore: J. S. Bach: Gavotte en rondeau from Violin Partita 3

Gil Shaham: violin

Sibelius Symphony: No. 2 in D major (40 mins)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

David Robertson conductor

Commentary in English

Turnage-Barber-Sibelius

Jamie Cullum & The Heritage Orchestra

Hindemith: Symphony 'Mathis der Maler' (27 mins) Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (17 mins) Christian Gerhaher: baritone Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor (65 mins) Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Herbert Blomstedt conductor Commentary in English, vocals with fixed English subtitles Interval cut

Hindemith-Mahler-Bruckner

Rameau: Dardanus – suite (18 mins) Canteloube: Songs from the Auvergne – selection (25 mins): Pastourelle Deux Bourrées: N'ai pas iéu de mio Une jionto pastouro Té, l'co té! Bailero Malurous qu'o uno fenno Anna Caterina Antonacci: soprano Martin Matalon: Lignes de fuite UK premiere) (18 mins) Mussorgsky, arr. Henry Wood: Pictures at an Exhibition (30 mins) BBC National Orchestra of Wales François-Xavier Roth conductor

Rameau-Canteloube-Matalon

Wagner - Parsifal

R. Strauss - Vier Letzte Lieder

Schoenberg - Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16

Webern - Six Pieces, Op 6

Berg - Three Pieces, Op 6

Simon Rattle & Berliner Philharmoniker

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and its French-born Music Director, Stéphane Denève, join Paul Lewis as he rounds off his cycle of the five Beethoven piano concertos with the last and most proudly majestic of them all.

Taking up this afternoon's Italian theme, they play spectacular orchestral showpieces by Berlioz and Respighi, inspired respectively by Rome's lively street life and its imperial past; while, cementing Celtic connections, they introduce a recent symphonic suite drawn from the Scottish composer James MacMillan's opera The Sacrifice, inspired by the medieval folk tales of The Mabinogion and premiered to great acclaim by Welsh National Opera in 2007.

    * Berlioz Overture 'Roman Carnival' (9 mins)

    * Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor' (38 mins)

    * interval

    * James Macmillan The Sacrifice – Three Interludes

      (London premiere) (15 mins)

    * Respighi Pines of Rome (23 mins)

    * Paul Lewis piano

    * Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    * Stéphane Denève conductor

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Tradition meets high jinks as Jiří Bělohlávek conducts his second Last Night, while the spirit of Henry Wood presides, as always, over the grand finale of the Proms. Renée Fleming lends her lustrous soprano to music by Strauss, Dvořák and Smetana. Former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Maxim Rysanov gives Tchaikovsky's popular cello variations a new voice, and loyal Prommers can spot the last traces of the season's Wood, Parry, Wagner, Rodgers and Hammerstein and opera themes.

A festive new piece by Jonathan Dove opens the evening; a contemporary hornpipe forms an upbeat to anniversary composer Arne's Rule, Britannia!; and audiences around the UK can join the Royal Albert Hall crowd in singing along to excerpts from Lohengrin and Carousel in a climax to the BBC's opera season

Last Night of The Proms

New British music, Brahms, Liszt and a lavish choral work blaze a trail for some of 2011's Proms musical strands. Benjamin Grosvenor made his Proms debut, and there's Janáček's extraordinary celebration of Slavic culture, the Glagolitic Mass.

Friday 15 July

7.30pm – c. 9.40pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, Piano music

Judith Weir

Stars, Night, Music and Light (c4 mins)

BBC Commission, World Premiere

Brahms

Academic Festival Overture (11 mins)

Liszt

Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major (20 mins)

INTERVAL

Janáček

Glagolitic Mass (45 mins)

Benjamin Grosvenor piano

Hibla Gerzmava soprano

Dagmar Pecková mezzo-soprano

Stefan Vinke tenor

Jan Martiník bass

David Goode organ

BBC Singers

BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jiří Bělohlávek conductor

First Night of the Proms

In the first half of his second Prom Myung-Whun Chung pairs works by German Romantics from opposite ends of the 19th century, including the meltingly beautiful Brahms Double Concerto with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon.

After the interval comes a piece with French connections which swept away that old order. A sensational succès de scandale in 1913 for Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring not only prompted the most famous riot in musical history but sounds sensational still, rediscovering rhythm as music's primal driving force.

Tuesday 19 July

7.00pm – c. 9.00pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Classical for starters

Weber

Oberon - overture (9 mins)

Brahms

Concerto in A minor for Violin and Cello (Double Concerto) (32 mins)

INTERVAL

Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring (33 mins)

Renaud Capuçon violin

Gautier Capuçon cello

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Myung-Whun Chung conductor

Weber, Brahms & Stravinsky

Thursday 21 July

7.30pm – c. 9.45pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Piano music

Sibelius

Scènes historiques - Suite No. 2 (19 mins)

Sibelius

Symphony No. 7 in C major (23 mins)

INTERVAL

Bartók

Piano Concerto No. 3 (24 mins)

Janáček

Sinfonietta (24 mins)

András Schiff piano

Hallé

Sir Mark Elder conductor

Sibelius, Bartók and Janáček

Basque-born Juanjo Mena, recently named Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, makes his Proms debut with this dazzling Franco-Spanish evening.

Debussy's three orchestral Images are interspersed with evocations of an idealised South filled with the rhythms of Gypsy dancing and the scent of jasmine.

The brilliant showpieces of Ravel are complemented by Falla's Impressionistic Andalusian concerto, in which the orchestra is joined by pianist Steven Osborne.

Friday 22 July

7.30pm – c. 9.50pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Classical for starters, French music concerts and events, Piano music

Debussy

Images - Gigues (7 mins)

Ravel

Rapsodie espagnole (15 mins)

Debussy

Images - Rondes de printemps (9 mins)

INTERVAL

Ravel

Alborado del gracioso (8 mins)

Falla

Nights in the Gardens of Spain (24 mins)

Debussy

Images - Ibéria (20 mins)

Steven Osborne piano

BBC Philharmonic

Juanjo Mena conductor

Debussy, Ravel & Falla

Music composed by Nitin Sawhney for the Human Planet television series, and performances by artistst including Ayarkhaan (Sakha Republic), Bibilang Shark-Calling Group (Papua New Guinea), Khusugtun (Mongolia), Rasmus Lyberth (Greenland), and Enock Mbongwe (Zambia). BBC Concert Orchestra, Charles Hazlewood (conductor) and Paul Rose (presenter)..

Big-screen video projections and excerpts from Nitin Sawhney's score for the acclaimed landmark BBC One series Human Planet, alongside artists heard in BBC Radio 3's accompanying Music Planet series.

Saturday 23 July

7.30pm – c. 9.45pm 

Royal Albert Hall

For families

There will be one interval

Human Planet Prom

The ultimate in dramatic intensity, this extraordinary work speaks of heaven and hell, fire and earth, darkness and light in music that is as much theatrical as devotional.

The Requiem is always a special event - the more so when we have on the podium a Verdi specialist whose recent Cologne recording, which also featured Ferruccio Furlanetto, has been much acclaimed.

Tonight's stellar line-up also includes Marina Poplavskaya and Joseph Calleja, who both sang alongside Furlanetto in last year's Simon Boccanegra.

Sunday 24 July

7.00pm – c. 8.40pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events

Verdi

Requiem (86 mins)

Marina Poplavskaya soprano

Mariana Pentcheva mezzo-soprano

Joseph Calleja tenor

Ferruccio Furlanetto bass

BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC National Chorus of Wales

London Philharmonic Choir

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Semyon Bychkov conductor

Verdi – Requiem

Sir Roger Norrington has chosen Mahler's last completed symphony for his final concerts as Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 1998.

Written at a time of personal crisis, the Ninth begins with what some have heard as the irregular rhythm of Mahler's own failing heartbeat and it ends with a long fade to eternal nothingness. In between comes perhaps the greatest, certainly the most cathartic, of all late- Romantic symphonies. Sadly, the composer did not live to hear it.

Tonight's performance promises to be both a moving occasion and a revealing one, taking up the faster pacing and purer orchestral sonorities of the composer's own time.

Monday 25 July

7.30pm – c. 9.00pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Mahler

Symphony No. 9 (73 mins)

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR)

Sir Roger Norrington conductor

Mahler – Symphony No. 9

Vladimir Jurowski's Hungarian Prom kicks off with Kodály's effervescent Dances of Galánta.

Bartók's more acerbically ebullient First Piano Concerto will give pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet a chance to use both hands: his previous Proms appearances, in 2008 and 2010, both involved pieces conceived for the left hand alone!

In tonight's second half, an influential masterwork from one of this year's featured composers, born 200 years ago. Liszt's A Faust Symphony 'in three character portraits, after Goethe' will be played in the version that concludes with a grandiose setting of the 'Chorus mysticus' unheard at the Proms since 1967.

Tuesday 26 July

7.30pm – c. 9.55pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, Piano music

Kodály

Dances of Galánta (16 mins)

Bartók

Piano Concerto No. 1 (24 mins)

INTERVAL

Liszt

A Faust Symphony (62 mins)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano

Marco Jentzsch tenor

London Philharmonic Choir (men's voices)

London Symphony Chorus (men's voices)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Kodály, Bartók & Liszt

Anyone who has split their sides laughing at CBBC's hit television series Horrible Histories now has the chance to see and hear the cast perform some of the most popular songs from the show, ranging from the Savage Stone Age and the Vicious Vikings to the Gorgeous Georgians and the Vile Victorians.

Backed by children's choirs and the Aurora Orchestra, the songs will be interspersed with some great music by composers such as King Henry VIII, Lully, Mozart and the prolific 'Anon'.

Horrible Histories, based on the best-selling books by Terry Deary with illustrations by Martin Brown, has proved a massive success. Children love the series, and the songs (music by Richie Webb) have proved among the most memorable elements of the show. Come to see the stars and sing along!

Following the success of the first-ever signed Prom last year, Dr Paul Whittaker, Artistic Director of Music and the Deaf, returns to guide you through this free Prom.

Saturday 30 July

11.00am – c. 1.00pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, For families

Louise Fryer (presenter), Horrible Histories cast, Choirs from The Music Centre, Kids Company Choir, Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon (conductor).

There will be one interval.

Horrible Histories – Free Family Prom

Strauss at his most passionate (and lascivious!) bookends a concert full of spectacle and panache.

At its heart is the patriotic cantata Prokofiev drew from his music for Eisenstein's epic film about a medieval Russian hero's defeat of the Teutonic invader. That score had quite an impact on Walton's own wartime work for the cinema but it is the subtler brio of his Violin Concerto that is heard before the interval.

Midori is one of relatively few international superstars to have taken up a piece whose formidable technical challenges were actively encouraged by Jascha Heifetz, its original soloist, but whose lyricism is all pervasive too.

Saturday 30 July

7.30pm – c. 9.55pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events

R. Strauss

Don Juan (17 mins)

Walton

Violin Concerto (32 mins)

INTERVAL

Prokofiev

Alexander Nevsky - cantata (40 mins)

R. Strauss

Salome - Dance of the Seven Veils (12 mins)

Midori violin

Nadezhda Serdiuk mezzo-soprano

CBSO Chorus

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Andris Nelsons conductor

Strauss, Walton & Prokofiev

Tasmin Little and Sir Andrew Davis tackle a favourite concerto which the violinist has only recently felt ready to commit to disc.

It is preceded by one of Elgar's most radical part-songs, notated in two keys simultaneously in a manner which might be said to parallel the incorrigible experiments of Percy Grainger.

To mark the 50th anniversary of that composer's death, his In a Nutshell suite receives a first outing at the Proms, reaching its popular march finale by way of some unpredictable and darkly complex invention. Once considered dangerously radical itself, Strauss's perky symphonic poem documents the adventures of a purely mythical rascal.

Tuesday 2 August

7.00pm – c. 9.15pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, Classical for starters

Elgar

There is sweet music (4 mins)

Elgar

Violin Concerto (50 mins)

INTERVAL

Grainger

Irish Tune from County Derry (4 mins)

Grainger

Suite 'In a Nutshell' (20 mins)

R. Strauss

Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (15 mins)

Tasmin Little violin

BBC Singers

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Elgar, Grainger & Strauss

Grainger is celebrated in a special Late Night sequence as star Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell and friends take a fresh look at the prodigious activities of this wild colonial boy.

A pioneering collector of folk music from around the globe and arguably the world's first crossover artist, Grainger explored new worlds and invented new sounds, by turns touching, funny and provocative.

Special guests, including the distinguished English folk singer June Tabor, place his achievement in its folk-music context.

Tuesday 2 August

10.15pm – c. 11.30pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events

Grainger

Green Bushes (9 mins)

Grainger

Molly on the Shore (5 mins)

Grainger

Shepherd's Hey - medley (12 mins)

Grainger

Early One Morning (5 mins)

Grainger

Shallow Brown (8 mins)

Grainger

Scotch Strathspey and Reel (9 mins)

Interspersed with traditional and contemporary folk music, including material which formed the basis for Grainger's arrangements

June Tabor singer

Wilson Family

BBC Singers (men's voices)

Kathryn Tickell Band

Northern Sinfonia

John Harle conductor

Grainger

Returning to the Proms for the first time since 1988, cellist Lynn Harrell celebrates the 95th-birthday year of Henri Dutilleux with a performance of one of his best-loved works, nocturnal, mysterious and beautifully coloured.

Debussy's languorous reverie fired up a stylistic revolution and gained notoriety when Nijinsky choreographed it for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

The same company commissioned Ravel's sumptuous evocation of Ancient Greece, embracing the most atmospheric sunrise in all music, but before that there's room for his notionally Hispanic experiment in writing 'orchestral tissue without music' - the ever popular Boléro.

Wednesday 3 August

7.30pm – c. 9.55pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, French music concerts and events

Debussy

Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune (8 mins)

Henri Dutilleux

'Tout un monde lointain...' (27 mins)

J. S. Bach

Suite for Solo Cello No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 - No. 5 Bourées 1 & 2 (3 mins)

(encore)

Ravel

Boléro (15 mins)

INTERVAL

Ravel

Daphnis and Chloë (50 mins)

Lynn Harrell cello

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles conductor

Debussy, Dutilleux & Ravel

Now Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel - known by his own musicians as 'the Dude' - joins his old friends in the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and some mightily distinguished guests to tackle a colossus of the standard repertoire.

Writing for vast forces including offstage brass, two solo singers and a large choir, Mahler takes listeners on a spectacular journey through the entire gamut of emotions.

Beginning at the graveside, he remembers happier, busier and (spiritually) emptier times on the way to an apocalyptic revelation of the Day of Judgement. The promise of eternal life is then renewed in some of music's most uplifting pages.

Friday 5 August

7.30pm – c. 9.10pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events

Mahler

Symphony No. 2 in C minor 'Resurrection' (85 mins)

Miah Persson soprano

Anna Larsson mezzo-soprano

National Youth Choir of Great Britain

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel conductor

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler

The music of Sergey Prokofiev looms large in this fascinating collaboration between Vladimir Jurowski and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

First, an esoteric offering from the master's London-based grandson, a crossover artist in the best sense, determined to find new audiences and to reconfigure the classical tradition by way of Minimalist grooves, dancefloor beats, club nights and remixes.

The influence of the senior Prokofiev is plain in the sizzling keyboard writing of Britten's early Piano Concerto, which gives BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Benjamin Grosvenor another chance to shine, following his First Night Proms debut.

In the second half, Prokofiev's ballet music recounts the doomed love of Verona's most romantic couple.

Saturday 6 August

6.30pm – c. 9.05pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Classical for starters, Piano music

Gabriel Prokofiev

Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra (21 mins)

Britten

Piano Concerto (35 mins)

Gould

Boogie Woogie Etude (2 mins)

(encore)

INTERVAL

Prokofiev

Romeo and Juliet - selection (50 mins)

Benjamin Grosvenor piano, New Generation Artist

DJ Switch dj (turntables)

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

When in 2008 Nigel Kennedy came back to the Proms after an absence of 21 years, his Late Night concert with his own quartet followed an early-evening performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto which he capped with a solo Bach encore.

Tonight's special event confirms that JSB continues to mean a great deal to him. The man dubbed 'the people's violinist' has recorded Bach concertos with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and with members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Discovering something new every time he explores the composer's music, Kennedy points up the parallels with jazz. Bach loved the dance forms of his own day and his music benefits from being played with emotional freedom and a keen rhythmic sense.

Saturday 6 August

10.00pm – c. 11.00pm 

Royal Albert Hall

J. S. Bach

Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 - No. 1 Preludio (4 mins)

J. S. Bach

Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (36 mins)

J. S. Bach

Das Pendel (arr. Kennedy) (7 mins)

Waller

How can you face me now? (arr. Nigel Kennedy) (7 mins)

(encore)

Waller

Honeysuckle Rose (arr. Nigel Kennedy) (7 mins)

(encore)

Waller

Viper’s Drag (arr. Nigel Kennedy) (5 mins)

(encore)

Nigel Kennedy violin

Rolf Bussald guitar

Yaron Stavi double bass

Krzysztof Dzeidzic percussion

Nigel Kennedy plays Bach

Assisted by guest star Chloë Hanslip, Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra bring the silver-screen excitement of music associated with the cinema, from Pinewood to Hollywood, from Psycho to Star Wars, with a special tribute to the late John Barry.

Friday 12 August

7.00pm – c. 9.20pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Classical for starters

Herrmann

Music from The Man Who Knew Too Much, Citizen Kane, and Psycho (18 mins)

Ennio Morricone

Cinema Paradiso - theme (7 mins)

Walton

Henry V - suite (arr. Muir Mathieson) (21 mins)

INTERVAL

John Williams

Music from Star Wars, Schindler's List and Harry Potter (14 mins)

Jonny Greenwood

Norwegian Wood - suite (arr. Robert Ziegler) (10 mins)

BBC Commission, World Premiere

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

Murder on the Orient Express - suite (8 mins)

Barry

Out of Africa - Love Theme (7 mins)

Various

Music from the James Bond films (10 mins)

Ennio Morricone

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Main Theme (3 mins)

(encore)

Chloë Hanslip violin

Rory Kinnear narrator

BBC Concert Orchestra

Keith Lockhart conductor

Film Music Prom

The five inventive multitaskers of the Spaghetti Western Orchestra have their own way of presenting film music in concert.

Fascinated by the scores of Ennio Morricone, they have devised an unclassifiable entertainment in which his epic soundtracks for film maker Sergio Leone are recreated with extraordinary virtuosity on instruments both conventional and rather less so.

'We really embraced the absurdity of a bunch of Aussie guys trying to do what Morricone did with a cast of hundreds and so we went about listening to the music and exploring the idea that every sound is equal and giving equal importance to all sounds.'

Expect a loose narrative, new uses for the asthma inhaler and the cornflake packet, and a rich harvest of post-modern laughs.

Friday 12 August

10.15pm – c. 11.30pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Spaghetti Western Orchestra

There will be no interval

Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Musician, actor, comedian and rock 'n' roll superstar Tim Minchin hosts a Proms first - the Comedy Prom.

Joined by guests including BBC Two Maestro winner Sue Perkins, musical cabaret duo Kit and The Widow, soprano Susan Bullock and rising star British pianist Danny Driver (making his Proms debut), Tim will weave his way through a spectacular evening of comedy, musical fun and surprises.

Also appearing Beardyman, The Boy with Tape on his Face, Doc Brown, and the Mongrels.

Marking the centenary year of Franz Reizenstein, one of the highlights is sure to be his Concerto Populaire, a whistlestop tour through competing favourite piano concertos. The programme offers a fresh, accessible and funny take on the Proms, accompanied on a grand scale by the ever-versatile BBC Concert Orchestra under Andrew Litton (guest conductor) and Jules Buckley (music director).

Saturday 13 August

7.30pm – c. 9.40pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Classical for starters

There will be one interval

Comedy Prom

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe is celebrating its 30th anniversary with two years of Brahms under Bernard Haitink, and brings a pair of concertos and a pair of symphonies to the Proms.

Haitink describes the COE as 'a group of exceptionally talented musicians. As true chamber musicians, they are used to listening to each other, without being exclusively focused on the conductor. This matches exactly the idea I have of conducting an orchestra.'

After Brahms's relatively mellow Third Symphony, one of the world's best-loved pianists performs a work boiling over with youthful passions. The same musicians return with more Brahms in Prom 49.

Friday 19 August

7.00pm – c. 9.00pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Piano music

Brahms

Symphony No. 3 in F major (38 mins)

INTERVAL

Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (45 mins)

Schumann

Fantasiestücke, Op 12 - No. 1 Des Abends (4 mins)

(encore)

Emanuel Ax piano

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Bernard Haitink conductor

Brahms – Symphony No. 3 & Piano Concerto No. 1

Angela Hewitt picks up the Brahms thread from the early evening Prom and launches this Late Night Prom that takes in an unjustly neglected score by Brahms's mentor, Robert Schumann, before observing the composer through the prism of an admirer, Arnold Schoenberg.

Andrew Manze, conducting his first Prom as Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, sees Brahms as a misunderstood figure, full of warmth.

He will bring his own insights to an increasingly popular arrangement in which Schoenberg incorporates some surprising 20th-century effects. Don't miss the Gypsy-style finale!

Friday 19 August

10.00pm – c. 11.20pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Piano music

Brahms

Three Intermezzos, Op. 117 - Nos. 1 & 2 (7 mins)

Schumann

Introduction and Concert Allegro, Op. 134 (13 mins)

Brahms

Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (arr. Schoenberg) (42 mins)

Angela Hewitt piano

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Manze conductor

Brahms & Schumann

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe's second pairing of Brahms masterworks opens with a work long central to Emanuel Ax's repertoire which he has recorded with tonight's conductor. Brahms's Second Piano Concerto is even bigger in scale than the First and just as technically demanding.

After the interval, the composer's astonishing final symphony, where the balance between expressiveness and iron structural control is most perfectly maintained.

It ends with an imposing set of variations, Brahms's late-Romantic take on the Baroque-style passacaglia, which uses material borrowed from J. S. Bach.

Saturday 20 August

7.30pm – c. 9.40pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Piano music

Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major (50 mins)

INTERVAL

Brahms

Symphony No. 4 in E minor (42 mins)

Emanuel Ax piano

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Bernard Haitink conductor

Brahms – Piano Concerto No. 2 & Symphony No. 4

A celebration of the Golden Age of Hollywood film musicals featuring Annalene Beechey, Charles Castronovo, Matthew Ford, Sarah Fox, Caroline O'Connor, Clare Teal, the Maida Vale Singers, John Wilson Orchestra and John Wilson (conductor).

The appearances of John Wilson and his hand-picked, high-octane orchestra have been among the most sensational Proms events of recent years.

Joined by a formidable line-up of today's vocal stars, they give what one critic has described as 'the auditory equivalent of a steam-clean' to another cache of show-stoppers.

'Hooray for Hollywood' takes us from the dawn of the talkies and the birth of the movie musical through to the 1960s. An extended sequence pays special tribute to the RKO films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who was born 100 years ago.

Monday 29 August

7.30pm – c. 9.35pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, Classical for starters

There will be one interval

Hooray for Hollywood

Sir Colin Davis tackles a work whose uncompromising nature makes it as great a challenge as anything in the choral repertoire, whether you regard it as a statement of the composer's belief in the spiritual potential of man or his faith in a supreme being.

'A musician must make affirmations,' says Davis. 'If a musician cannot believe in music as a universal ideal, what is he left with? We may be encircled by gloom but music gives us a chance to throw what Meredith calls "that faint thin line upon the shore". ... Beethoven is a man at war with himself but a man who is determined to win.'

Sunday 4 September

7.00pm – c. 8.40pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events

Beethoven

Missa Solemnis (90 mins)

Helena Juntunen soprano

Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano

Paul Groves tenor

Matthew Rose bass

London Philharmonic Choir

London Symphony Chorus

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Colin Davis conductor

Beethoven – Missa Solemnis

Tradition meets high jinks once again as Edward Gardner conducts his first Last Night of the Proms. For this grandest of grand finales there are two very special guests.

Since her first Proms appearance in 1995, Susan Bullock has emerged as Britain's leading dramatic soprano, specialising in what she calls 'the large ladies' of the repertoire. None is more challenging than Brünnhilde, whose Immolation Scene concludes Wagner's epic Ring cycle.

Also featured is a classical music superstar, as popular in the West as in his native China. Lang Lang plays Liszt at his most dazzling on this, his sixth visit to the Proms.

Bartók's thrilling suite provides a blast of exotic orchestral colour. Arne, Parry and Elgar bring down the curtain in traditional fashion. But first the Master of the Queen's Music pays tribute to the Promenaders' fundraising efforts on behalf of the Musicians Benevolent Fund in his new work.

Saturday 10 September

7.30pm – c. 10.45pm 

Royal Albert Hall

Choral music and singing events, Piano music

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Musica benevolens (c4 mins)

Musicians Benevolent Fund commission:

World Premiere

Bartók

The Miraculous Mandarin - suite (20 mins)

Wagner

Götterdämmerung - Immolation Scene (18 mins)

Liszt

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major (19 mins)

INTERVAL

Chopin

Grande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22 (9 mins)

Grainger

Mo nighean dubh (My Dark-Haired Maiden) (4 mins)

Britten

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (20 mins)

Rodgers

The Sound of Music - 'Climb ev'ry mountain' (arr.Robert Russell Bennett) (4 mins)

Rodgers

Carousel - 'You'll never walk alone' (arr. Jackson) (3 mins)

Elgar

Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major ('Land of Hope and Glory') (8 mins)

Arne

Rule Britannia (8 mins)

Parry

Jerusalem (orch. Elgar) (4 mins)

Traditional

The National Anthem (2 mins)

Lang Lang piano

Susan Bullock soprano

BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner conductor

Mark-Anthony Turnage - Canon Fever (3 mins)

Elgar - Overture 'Cockaigne (In London Town)' (15 mins)

Delius - Sea Drift (25 mins)

Tippett - Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles (16 mins)

Elgar - Coronation Ode (33 mins)

Making his Proms debut as the BBC Philharmonic's Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena explores Strauss the impatient visionary, whose Also sprach Zarathustra was famously used on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss's Four Last Songs exude a sense of calm resignation suffused with autumn light. 

After the interval, a major UK premiere from Kaija Saariaho, whose own music is lit by atmosphere and mood. Inspired by the autobiography of Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director, Laterna magica includes sections in which players whisper extracts over an instrumental murmur. To conclude, the hard-won luminescence of Sibelius's (unintended) symphonic farewell.

Strauss, Saariaho & Sibelius

Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel make their Proms debut in this free Late Night Prom, giving Handel's three Water Music suites and Fireworks Music the big-band, period-instrument treatment. Niquet directs an expanded group of up to 80 musicians to evoke resplendent royal occasions on the River Thames and in Green Park, offering a new slant on London's favourite part pieces.

Handel – Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks

Daniel Barenboim directs his first Beethoven symphony cycle in London – and becomes the first conductor since Henry Wood in 1942 to survey all nine symphonies in a single Proms season. 

His dynamic West–Eastern Divan Orchestra – famously bringing together Arab and Israeli players to form less 'an orchestra for peace' than 'an orchestra against ignorance' – goes far beyond the symbolic in its goal of building bridges through music. 

Expect further fireworks as Barenboim pairs Beethoven's revolutionary classics with music by one of today's senior musical figures, the ever-innovative composer-conductor Pierre Boulez, with whom Barenboim first collaborated in the mid-1960s

Beethoven Cycle – Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

Daniel Barenboim and his youthful ensemble relish the energy of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony before tackling the 'Eroica', one of the irrefutable mould-breakers of classical music. Between these peaks, Boulez's Dialogue de l'ombre double introduces another kind of theatre, the clarinet's electronic double becoming more 'real' than the soloist physically present.

Beethoven Cycle – Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

Daniel Barenboim's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies reaches its mid-point, as he conducts his ensemble of young Arab and Israeli musicians, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in a programme that includes both the Pastoral Symphony and that most iconic of all orchestral masterpieces, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Alongside, Barenboim programmes two short works by Pierre Boulez - Memoriale for flute and ensemble, and Messagesquisse, which showcases the virtuosity of the orchestra's cello section

Beethoven Cycle – Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6

Beethoven

Symphony No. 8 in F major (25 mins)

Pierre Boulez

Anthèmes 2 (25 mins)

INTERVAL

Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major (35 min)

Michael Barenboim violin 

IRCAM live electronics 

West–Eastern Divan Orchestra 

Daniel Barenboim conductor 

Listen again

BBC Proms: 2012 Season: Proms Plus: 24/07/2012Discover the music

More from Radio 3

 Beethoven's Symphony No. 7

Delve into Beethoven's paean to rhythm. .

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Beethoven

Pierre Boulez

Daniel Barenboim

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Beethoven - Symphony No 8 (Excerpt)

BBC Proms 2012: Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A major (Excerpt)Programme notes

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About this event

Daneil Barenboim continues his survey of Beethoven – whose music, he believes, 'speaks to all people'. Tonight, two Beethoven symphonies of dancing athleticism and universal appeal frame one of Pierre Boulez's mesmerising extensions of earlier works: Anthèmes 2 is scored for violin and live electronics and its serenely beautiful expressivity may come as a surprise. Beethoven's ebullient Seventh, famously dubbed 'the apotheosis of dance', was the last piece conducted by Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood.

Beethoven Cycle – Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

Beethoven

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, 'Choral' (77 mins)

Anna Samuil soprano 

Waltraud Meier mezzo-soprano 

René Pape bass 

National Youth Choir of Great Britain 

West–Eastern Divan Orchestra 

Daniel Barenboim conductor 

About this event

Daniel Barenboim’s Beethoven cycle reaches its climax with a youthful take on the traditional annual Proms performance of the Ninth, perhaps the richest, most provocative statement in Western art music.

An impressive team of soloists joins the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra to project the finale’s inclusive vision of hope, reconciliation and hard-won triumph. What better to mark today’s opening of the London 2012 Olympics than Beethoven’s ultimate hymn to universal brotherhood?

Beethoven Cycle – Symphony No. 9, 'Choral'

Wallace & Gromit appear in a new Proms adventure, before a screening of A Matter of Loaf and Death – plus classical favourites.

The Wallace and Gromit Prom

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (16 mins) Ireland - These Things Shall Be (22 mins) Delius - The Walk to the Paradise Garden (10 mins) Walton - Belshazzar's Feast (36 mins) Jonathan Lemalu: bass-baritone London Brass BBC Symphony Chorus BBC National Chorus of Wales BBC National Orchestra of Wales Tadaaki Otaka, Conductor Tadaaki Otaka, a notable enthusiast of British music, opens with Vaughan Williams’s much loved classic before revisiting a BBC commission that has fallen into neglect in the half-century since its composer’s death: Ireland’s These Things Shall Be is a mini-oratorio with a utopian text. The massed choirs and the commanding bass baritone of former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Jonathan Lemalu return after the interval to animate Walton’s brazen Old Testament tale, but first we hear from another anniversary composer, here at his most poignant.

Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Delius & Walton

Bach – Mass in B minor

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll (18 mins) Interlude Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 in C minor (80 mins) (ed. Nowak, 1955) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles, Conductor In their first appearance this season, Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra present two works by composers for whom he has a particular affinity. Wagner’s gift to his wife, Cosima, is presented in its pared down original orchestration, much as she would have heard it that Christmas morning in 1870. The Royal Albert Hall is an ideal venue for Bruckner’s symphonic revelations. The Eighth Symphony, arguably the greatest of them all, remains a huge and glorious challenge.

Wagner & Bruckner

Varèse - Tuning Up (5 mins) Nico Muhly - Gait (20 mins), BBC Commission, London Premiere Interlude Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphony (77 mins) Anna Meredith - HandsFree (12 mins) Cynthia Millar - ondes martenot Joanna MacGregor - piano National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain Vasily Petrenko, Conductor Messiaen’s ecstatic, Eastern-influenced celebration of love is framed by a BBC commission from one of America’s rising talents and Anna Meredith’s acclaimed tour de force of clapping, stamping, singing and body percussion, first performed earlier this year by NYO members and commissioned for the PRS for Music Foundation's New Music 20x12 programme as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Varèse’s Tuni

Morten Frank Larsen, Bass-Baritone Julius Foo, Treble Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pwll Coch, Caerdydd Ysgol Gynradd Gymunedol Gymraeg, Llantrisant Ysgol Gynradd Dolau, Llanharan Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg, Rhydaman National Youth Choir of Wales Aelwyd y Waun Ddyfal Musicians from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama BBC National Chorus of Wales BBC National Orchestra of Wales National Youth Orchestra of Wales Kristjan Järvi,Conductor Thomas Kiemle, Stage Director Less a religious work than a theatrical happening, Bernstein’s Mass receives its first complete Proms performance, conducted by one of its most ardent champions, and supported by a spectrum of talented Welsh children and adult musicians. Using a mix of highbrow and vernacular styles, Bernstein created a rich, quintessentially American score that has recently begun to emerge as a modern classic. Petroc Trelawney, Host In English and Latin

Bernstein – Mass

Wagner -Tristan and Isolde – Prelude (Act 1) (9 mins) James MacMillan - Credo (c25 mins), BBC co-commission, World Premiere INTERLUDE Bruckner - Symphony No. 6 in A major (55 mins) Manchester Chamber Choir (Proms debut) Northern Sinfonia Chorus (Proms debut) Rushley Singers (Proms debut) BBC Philharmonic Juanjo Mena, Conductor Juanjo Mena presents a major world premiere before offering his acclaimed reading of a sonorous yet dangerously eruptive Bruckner symphony. First though, there’s the emblematic love of Tristan and Isolde, expressed through music dark in sound and revolutionary in harmony. James MacMillan’s works have enjoyed regular success at the Proms since the first performance of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was given here in 1990. As with Bruckner, MacMillan’s communicative power is often associated with expressions of faith, and the unveiling of Credo, has been keenly awaited.

Wagner, Bruckner & MacMillan

A celebration of Ivor Novello Remember such time-honoured favourites as 'We'll gather lilacs'? Tonight we acknowledge that patriotic First World War plea to 'keep the home fires burning' in a tribute to a silent-movie actor, West End playwright, composer and star of a string of stage musicals hugely popular in their day. Ivor Novello, the most consistently successful composer of British musicals before the advent of Andrew Lloyd Webber, nowadays tends to be unjustly neglected. Sir Mark Elder is a committed advocate, as is tonight’s master of ceremonies, Simon Callow. Sophie Bevan, Soprano Toby Spence, Tenor Simon Callow, Narrator Hallé Orchestra Sir Mark Elder, Conductor

Glamorous Night: A Celebration of Ivor Novello

From the Royal Albert Hall, Mark Armstrong conducts the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, featuring Britain's best young jazz musicians in a wide-ranging set of jazz favourites. The programme includes Duke Ellington's The Queen's Suite to mark the Diamond Jubilee year and a new commission by saxophonist Tim Garland. Presented by Petroc Trelawny.

National Youth Jazz Orchestra

Dvorák - Symphony No. 9 in E minor, 'From the New World' (45 mins) Interlude Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (4 mins) Joan Tower - Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (3 mins) Villa-Lobos - Momoprécoce (28 mins) Ginastera - Estancia – suite (12 mins) Edu Lobo - Pé de Vento from Suíte Popular Brasileira, orch. Nelson Ayres (3 mins) - Encore Nelson Freire, Piano São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop, Conductor Music from both American hemispheres features tonight. First the masterpiece through which the Bohemian Dvorák, resident in New York, sought to establish an American musical identity, a symphony exuding nostalgia for his own native woods and fields. Later comes Copland’s iconic Fanfare and highlights from Ginastera’s best-known score. Joan Tower, whose childhood was spent partly in Bolivia, celebrates ‘women who take risks and are adventurous’, while distinguished Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire returns to the Proms to play one of Villa-Lobos’s most attractive compositions. Katie Derham, Hostess

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No. 4 in F minor (30 mins) Symphony No. 5 in D major (39 mins) Interlude Symphony No. 6 in E minor (31 mins) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Andrew Manze: conductor Over the next few seasons Andrew Manze directs all nine Vaughan Williams symphonies with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Associate Guest Conductor: "Vaughan Williams is one of those composers some people have fixed ideas about … I’m on a bit of a mission to rehabilitate him in people’s minds as an important figure in the musicmaking of this country." Tonight he tackles three differently powerful works of the 1930s and 1940s, which, whatever their own emotional back stories, may still be seen as chronicling our national life in troubled times.

Vaughan Williams – Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6

Weber - Der Freischütz – Overture (10 mins) Mahler - Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (17 mins) Interlude Tchaikovsky - Manfred (57 mins) Alice Coote - Mezzo-soprano London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski, Conductor After the overture to the first important German Romantic opera, Weber’s take on the folk legend of a marksman’s contract with the devil, featured artist Alice Coote returns to tackle Mahler’s folk-influenced song-cycle, inspired by the conclusion of an unhappy love affair. Tchaikovsky’s Manfred, a full-length fusion of tone-poem and symphonic form, makes passionate use of Byron’s dramatic poem with supernatural elements which held so many 19th-century artists in thrall. This powerfully driven masterpiece is a favourite of tonight’s conductor. Charles Hazlewood, Host

Weber, Mahler & Tchaikovsky

Sir Arthur Sullivan The Yeomen of the Guard Leigh Melrose baritone (Lt Sir Richard Cholmondeley) Andrew Kennedy tenor (Colonel Fairfax) Lisa Milne soprano (Elsie Maynard) Victoria Simmonds mezzo-soprano (Phoebe Meryll) Felicity Palmer mezzo-soprano (Dame Carruthers) Mary Bevan soprano (Kate) Mark Richardson bass-baritone (Sergeant Meryll) Tom Randle tenor (Leonard Meryll) Mark Stone baritone (Jack Point) Toby Stafford-Allen baritone (Wilfred Shadbolt) BBC Singers BBC Concert Orchestra Jane Glover, Conductor Martin Duncan, Stage Director Recent Proms seasons have seen a liberal sprinkling of complete Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, under such distinguished conductors as Jane Glover and the late Charles Mackerras. With its historic London setting, the grandest, most emotionally engaging of the Savoy operas is a must for 2012.

Gilbert & Sullivan – The Yeomen of the Guard

Wagner - Parsifal – Prelude (Act 3) and Good Friday Music (20 mins) Berg - Violin Concerto (25 mins) Bach - Adagio from Violin Sonata in A minor Interlude R. Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier – suite (22 mins) Ravel - La valse (12 mins) Frank Peter Zimmermann, Violin Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Daniele Gatti, Conductor (Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) is a youth orchestra based in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1986 by conductor Claudio Abbado.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler_Youth_Orchestra http://www.gmjo.at/Home/tabid/39/language/en-US/Default.aspx One of the great youth orchestras is back, and in distinguished company. Daniele Gatti begins with the weighty tread and unmatched radiance of music he has been exploring at Bayreuth. Frank Peter Zimmermann plays one of the 20th century’s most eloquent violin concertos. Strauss conjures up a bittersweet Vienna of young love, mid-life melancholy and abundant waltz tunes, while Ravel’s apotheosis of that dance form may or may not have been intended as a metaphor for the fate of European civilisation as its unstoppable whirling reaches critical mass.

Wagner, Berg, R. Strauss & Ravel

John Wilson Orchestra Maida Vale Singers John Wilson: conductor After last year’s celebration of the Hollywood screen musical, John Wilson and his high-octane orchestra – whose technicoloured performances, according to one critic, offer ‘the auditory equivalent of a steam-clean’ – present a tribute to the composers and arrangers responsible for creating the Broadway Sound – among them such legendary tunesmiths as Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Vincent Youmans, Richard Rodgers and Frank Loesser. With a cast of leading soloists, the concert includes excerpts from Show Boat, No, No, Nanette, On Your Toes, Kiss Me, Kate and Annie Get Your Gun.

The Broadway Sound

Howells - Hymnus Paradisi (44 mins) Interlude Elgar - Symphony No. 1 in A flat major (53 mins) Miah Persson: soprano Andrew Kennedy: tenor BBC Symphony Chorus London Philharmonic Choir BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins, Conductor Following his triumphant conducting of Havergal Brian’s ‘The Gothic’ Symphony last year, Martyn Brabbins brings another British magnum opus to the Proms. Herbert Howells wrote Hymnus Paradisi ‘for the drawer’ in the wake of the tragically early death of his son. Only years later was he persuaded to release a finished score to the public. After this light-filled memorial from a composer closely identified with Gloucester Cathedral, we revisit the masterpiece that, in 1908 – the year of the first London Olympics – announced a Worcester man’s arrival as perhaps the greatest of British symphonists.

Howells & Elgar

Haydn - Symphony No. 104 in D major, 'London' (30 mins) Interlude Richard Strauss - An Alpine Symphony (50 mins) Encore - Johann Strauss - Voices of Spring Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Bernard Haitink, Conductor The doyen (edit: dean) of European conductors presents favourite repertoire with an ensemble closely associated with the history and traditions of orchestral music. The last of Haydn’s symphonies, written while he was living in London, proved an instant critical and commercial success. Not so the Strauss, part-elegy for Mahler, part-celebration of the composer himself. Mingling childhood memories of a schoolboy mountaineering expedition with a deeper vision of man’s place on earth, the work was received rather sniffily in Britain until dedicated interpreters such as Bernard Haitink arrived to change all that.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – Haydn & R. Strauss

Part 1: Mark Simpson: sparks (c2 mins), BBC Commission, World Premiere Suk: Towards a New Life (6 mins) Delius: Songs of Farewell (18 mins) Verdi: Un ballo in maschera – ‘Forse la soglia attinse … Ma se m’è forza perderti’ (5 mins) Massenet: Werther – ‘Pourquoi me réveiller?’ (3 mins) Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor (25 mins) Puccini: Tosca – ‘E lucevan le stelle’ (3 mins) Puccini: Turandot – ‘Nessun dorma’ (3 mins) Intermission Part 2: John Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme (5 mins) Dvorák: Overture 'Carnival' (9 mins) Shostakovich: The Gadfly – Romance (6 mins) Leoncavallo: Mattinata (3 mins) Lara: Granada (3 mins) Rodgers: Carousel – ‘You’ll never walk alone’ (4 mins) Henry Wood: Fantasia on British Sea-Songs (20 mins) Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major ('Land of Hope and Glory') (8 mins) Parry, orch. Elgar: Jerusalem (4 mins) Traditional: The National Anthem (2 mins) Nicola Benedetti: Violin Joseph Calleja: Tenor BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Jirí Belohlávek, Conductor Join us for the year’s biggest musical party with two very special guests. Since taking the nation by storm as 2004’s BBC Young Musician of the Year, Scottishborn Nicola Benedetti has enhanced her reputation as one of Britain’s most innovative and creative young violinists. We also welcome Joseph Calleja, the Maltese tenor who sings with the grace and elegance of the voices of a bygone era. A brace of Czechs acknowledges the sterling work of the BBC SO’s outgoing chief, while contributions from 2012’s anniversary composers include Delius’s valedictory settings of Walt Whitman. More familiar home-grown music brings down the curtain in time-honoured fashion

Last Night of the Proms 2012

The greatest classical music festival in the world gets underway from the Royal Albert Hall. Katie Derham introduces music on a sea-inspired theme by English composers Vaughan Williams and Britten and two sets of the well-known Paganini variations by Rachmaninov and Polish composer Lutoslawski. There is also the world premiere of Julian Anderson's Harmony.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Proms Youth Choir and soloists Stephen Hough (piano), Sally Mathews (soprano) and Roderick Williams (baritone).

From the Royal Albert Hall, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Nott perform Mahler's Fifth Symphony, opening a Thursday night season featuring Orchestras of the World at the BBC Proms.

Katie Derham introduces this popular work by Mahler with its intensely lyrical fourth movement, the Adagietto, written as a love letter to the composer's young wife Alma and later made famous when featured in the film Death in Venice.

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

From the Royal Albert Hall, Samira Ahmed introduces the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Juanjo Mena, who perform Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 and Nielsen's Fourth Symphony. The piano soloist is the extraordinary young Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, whose blindness is no barrier to his musical talent. Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, 'The Inextinguishable', features a battle between two sets of timpani.

Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

A rare opportunity to hear the Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal Albert Hall. The Prom begins with a classical gem, Mozart's Haffner Symphony, and ends with the melancholy and high drama of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. 18-year-old Canadian piano phenomenon Jan Lisiecki makes his Proms debut as the soloist in Schumann's Piano Concerto.

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Santa Cecilia Orchestra

The newly-formed National Youth Orchestra of the USA comes to the Proms under the conductor Valery Gergiev, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Proms favourite Joshua Bell as soloist and Shostakovich's 10th Symphony, a stirring and powerful musical protest against oppression.

Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - National Youth Orchestra USA

Leading British composer Thomas Adès joins presenter Tom Service to reflect on his new work Totentanz, or Dance of Death, which receives its world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall. Adès himself conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme which also features Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem and Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto with soloist Paul Watkins.

Proms on Four: 20th Century Classics - BBC Symphony Orchestra

From the Royal Albert Hall, Katie Derham introduces the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a truly international orchestra whose players come from 20 different countries. Formed in 1997 it has rapidly established a reputation as one of Europe's best ensembles. Under conductor Daniel Harding it plays symphonies by Schumann and Sibelius and is joined by the Liverpool-born pianist Paul Lewis for a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto no 25.

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Mahler Chamber Orchestra

A Prom concert of music and dance introduced by Samira Ahmed from the Royal Albert Hall. The Antonio Marquez Company from Spain joins the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to dance in Ravel's Bolero and Falla's Three-Cornered Hat. Before that, Juanjo Mena conducts a performance of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, described famously by Wagner as 'the apotheosis of the dance'.

The Sunday series at the Proms continues with an all-Russian programme of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, performed by Danish conductor Thomas Sondergard with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Royal Albert Hall.

Tom Service presents his distinctive take on the music, featuring soloist Daniel Hope in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 in G minor, followed by Shostakovich's mighty Symphony No 11, The Year 1905.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons performs Piano Concerto No 4 by Beethoven (soloist Mitsuko Uchida) and Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven's 5th Symphony headlines this Prom, the most iconic symphony in western music with its dramatic opening 'fate' motif. The symphony is preceded by Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, a work of contained ferocity. In contrast the concert opens with Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz, the ultimate expression of the pleasures of Viennese high society.

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Introduced from the Royal Albert Hall by Suzy Klein.

Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Sarah-Jane Crawford and Charlie Sloth present the first ever Urban Prom from the Royal Albert Hall. A selection of artists sing and rap their biggest hits - including gospel singer Laura Mvula, hip-hop star Wretch 32, rapper/producer/DJ/songwriter Fazer, old-school soul rapper Maverick Sabre, soul singing maverick Jacob Banks and UK grime scene sensation Lady Leshurr rapping with Labrinth - all performing alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The euphoric musical experience is led by conductor and arranger Jules Buckley, who has created a unique, unforgettable Prom.

The Urban Prom 2013

From the Royal Albert Hall, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Chorus, based in Rome and conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, bring an authentically Italian touch to a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Verdi's birth.

In a concert featuring his religious works, Italian soprano Maria Agresta makes her Proms debut singing rarely performed settings of Ave Maria and Libera Me. The Prom concludes with Verdi's final work, Four Sacred Pieces, completed a few years before his death in 1901.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, one of the pre-eminent exponents of the music of JS Bach, returns to the Proms with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in two profoundly moving works based on events in the life of Christ, the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. Introduced by Suzy Klein.

Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - Bach Oratorios

Brand new sounds from the Proms in Tom Service's modern music series. Tom is joined by Southbank classical music supremo Gillian Moore to discuss a selection of premieres and new commissions from across the season at the Royal Albert Hall. Music ranges from the world premieres of John McCabe's Joybox and Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze to Murray Gold's new composition to mark Doctor Who's 50th birthday.

Proms on Four: 20th Century Classics - New Music at the Proms

From the Royal Albert Hall, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, under their charismatic French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, bring a programme of ill-fated love to the BBC Proms. Tchaikovsky's fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet is followed by Wagner's Wesendonck Leider, a song cycle inspired by the composer's infatuation with the wife of one of his wealthy patrons. Soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci is the soloist. The concert ends with a performance of one of the great orchestral works of the 20th century, Prokofiev's 5th Symphony. Presented by Katie Derham.

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

The World's Greatest Classical Music Festival.  The BBC Proms is a classical music festival held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and in recent years has explored an innovative series of Proms around the UK with concerts in all four nations. Its aim: to bring the best in classical music to the widest possible audience, which remains true to founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original vision in 1895.  Whether you are a classical connoisseur or think classical music isn’t for you, there is something for everyone in the eight-week stretch of concerts.

All Episodes of BBC Proms

Browse all episodes of BBC Proms

Browse all episodes of BBC Proms

Season 1

First Broadcast

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/6/1947