Mahler's Symphony No 4 in G major

Omnibus returns to the Royal Albert Hall for the first of six programmes from the 95th season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. Tonight, following her triumph as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at

Glyndebourne, Joan Rodgers talks about a singer's view of Mahler and the crucial importance that song plays in his early symphonies. Yet in the Fourth Symphony, the soprano soloist remains silent for the first three movements! With the BBC

Welsh Symphony Orchestra led by JAMES CLARK conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. Narrator Christopher Cook

Omnibus at the Proms

First Night of the Proms

The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts return tonight live in stereo from the Royal Albert Hall. The opening concert features a popular Beethoven Symphony and a powerful Stravinsky work written in collaboration with Jean Cocteau. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Bela Dekany, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Part 1

Beethoven Symphony No 4 in B flat major

8.05* Interval feature: Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

Jean Cocteau, one of the most eclectic and colourful of French artists, was born 100 years ago this month. Roger Nichols looks at his often bizarre relationship with his contemporaries and traces his collaboration with Stravinsky.

8.25* Part 2

Stravinsky Oedipus Rex

(sung in Latin with English subtitles)

BBC Singers (men's voices)

Chorus master Malcolm Hicks

Introduced by Richard Baker

An Evening with Maria Ewing

The American soprano sings her favourite songs from

American musical theatre and film, including those of George Gershwin ,

Cole Porter , Frank Loesser , Harold Arlen and Arthur Schwartz , with Richard Rodney Bennett (piano).

Whether as an innocent yet corrupting Salome, or a determinedly individual

Carmen, Maria Ewing has a formidable world-wide reputation. Tonight she takes a completely new step into popular song that promises a dazzling evening of sumptuous melody and smart lyrics. 'It's part of me, a part of my upbringing. The whole point of doing this concert is to show that we are as serious about this as we are about the classics.' With the BBC Concert Orchestra, led by Martin Loveday , conducted by Barry Wordsworth.

Narrator: Christopher Cook.

Prokofiev's 'Classical'

Symphony and Schnittke 's Viola Concerto

Tonight's programme features two works by two major 20th-century Russian composers, performed by conductor Valery Gergiev and viola soloist

Yuri Bashmet both from the USSR. Prokofiev's popular Symphony No 1 in D

(Classical), written in 1917, is followed by a new work the Viola Concerto by Alfred Schnittke. Premiered in 1986 by Bashmet and Gergiev, the concerto is a highly charged personal work that communicates directly with the audience.

With the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra led by Dennis Simons.

Narrator: Christopher Cook

Beethoven's Choral

Symphony conducted by Klaus Tennstedt

Beethoven's Ninth, the great revolutionary work that ends with Schiller's Ode to Joy, is given under the German conductor whose performance of it is now world-renowned. Klaus Tennstedt first began to make an international reputation after he left his native East Germany in 1971. He was made principal conductor and music director of the London Philharmonic in 1983 and is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Mechthild Gessendorf

(soprano)

Hanna Schwarz (mezzo-soprano)

David Rendall (tenor)

Hermann Becht (baritone). London Philharmonic Choir chorusmaster Richard Cooke. BBC Symphony Chorus chorusmaster

Stephen Jackson.

London Philharmonic led by David Nolan.

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra of Sweden

Two contrasting works are featured by tonight's visiting orchestra. They are

Mendelssohn's Violin

Concerto and Arvo Part's Third Symphony (UK premiere). The latter is introduced by a documentary film on Part, the Estonian composer born in 1935, whose individual style has catapulted him to popularity in the west over the last few years. The Third Symphony, dedicated to tonight's conductor, fellow Estonian Neeme Jarvi, marks a transitional stage to a new direction, explored with the help of the Hilliard

Ensemble. To start the programme, the world-famous Taiwanese violinist

Cho-Liang Lin , who made his public debut at the age of 7 and now lives in the USA, plays Mendelssohn's ever-popular Violin Concerto in E minor.

Berlioz The Damnation of Faust conducted by Sir Georg Solti. Parts 1 and 2. Tonight sees one of the most outstanding Promenade

Concerts this season: a visit by the world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Live in stereo from the Royal

Albert Hall in London, Solti conducts Berlioz's mammoth

'Dramatic Legend in Four Parts' based on Goethe's poetic drama of 'sin and redemption'.

Chicago Symphony Chorus chorusmaster:

Margaret Hillis.

Chicago Symphony

Orchestra concertmasters: Samuel Magad and Ruben Gonzales.

Choristers of Westminster Cathedral Choir School. Introduced by Michael Berkeley.

Live from the Proms

Rozhdestvensky Conducts Cinderella

Between 1978-82 the flamboyant Russian

Gennady Rozhdestvensky was Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Tonight 'Noddy' (as the orchestra knows him) rejoins them to conduct Rossini's Overture to the 1817 comic opera La Cenerentola and Act n of Prokofiev's popular ballet, Cinderella.

During the programme

Rozhdestvensky talks about Prokofiev with the famous Russian ballerina, Galina Ulanova , who danced principal roles in all of his full-length ballets, and with the composer's son

Oleg Prokofiev , a sculptor now living in London.

BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Bela Dekaney.

Narrator: Christopher Cook.

Conducted by Sir John Pritchard.

Live in stereo from the Royal Albert Hall , part 1 of this year's traditional end-of-term celebration has a French theme in keeping with the Bicentennial, while part 2 remains resolutely British.

BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Bela Dekany BBC Singers directed by John Poole BBC Symphony Chorus directed by Stephen Jackson Introduced by Richard Baker.

Part 1 Berlioz:

Overture: The Corsair

Saint-Saens: Violin Concerto No 3 in B minor

Soloist: Ida Haendel

Bizet: Carmen (excerpts)

Last Night of the Proms

Part 2

Eric Coates Knightsbridge , from 'London Suite'

Saint-Saens Softly awakes my heart from 'Samson and Delilah'

Delius Summer Night on the River

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 Henry Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs

Arne Rule, Britannia!

Parry (orch Elgar) Jerusalem Soloist: Sarah Walker

(mezzo-soprano)

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.

Omnibus at the Proms

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