The festival opens with Elgar’s biblical oratorio The Kingdom – the beautiful ‘slow movement’ of a planned musical triptych. Celebrated Elgarian Sir Andrew Davis conducts the massed forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC National Chorus of Wales. They are joined by a distinguished cast of soloists including Proms regulars Christopher Purves and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.

East meets West as the China Philharmonic Orchestra launches our series of global orchestras making their debuts at the 2014 Proms.

Sandwiched between the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Wimbledon is the first ever BBC Sport Prom. Hosted by Gabby Logan, this special event combines classical favourites, TV themes and sports personalities, with the BBC Concert Orchestra on hand to capture the sporting thrills and spills.

Tom Service presents as Russian maestro Valery Gergiev brings the World Orchestra for Peace to the Proms for a performance of Mahler's all-encompassing Sixth Symphony. In celebration of Richard Strauss's 150th birthday year, Gergiev also conducts the symphonic fantasia Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Proms favourite Julia Fischer returns as soloist in Dvořák’s earthy, folk-infused violin concerto, joining Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra for David Zinman’s final concert as its Chief Conductor. Strauss’s playful depiction of the prankster Till Eulenspiegel continues the musical journey across Central Europe, and the evening closes among the breathtaking landscapes of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony.

The Glyndebourne Festival’s annual visit to the Proms continues our Strauss 150th-anniversary celebrations with a semi-staging of his sparkling comic opera Der Rosenkavalier. Conductor Robin Ticciati conjures this gilded fantasy of fin-de-siècle Vienna with the help of an international cast, led by British soprano Kate Royal in her role debut as the Marschallin.

Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony – a violent portrait of the horrors of Stalin’s Russia – is the centrepiece of this concert from Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. They are joined by German violinist Isabelle Faust for the passionate nationalism of Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, and the concert opens with the first of two posthumous premieres this season by John Tavener.

Better known as the electro-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe make their Proms debut here as composers. The world premiere of their large-scale work A Man from the Future, inspired by code-breaker Alan Turing, sits alongside new orchestral arrangements of favourite Pet Shop Boys songs.

One of choral music’s greatest works, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass is a passionate, secular oratorio celebrating nationhood and peace. By contrast, conflict is to the fore in Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a work that distils the drama of the composer’s relationship with Schumann and his wife Clara. Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Barry Douglas.

A concert of 20th-century English music explores musical friendships. Walton’s Hindemith Variations pay homage to a beloved colleague; Elgar’s 'Enigma' Variations paint evocative portraits of family and friends. Tasmin Little joins the BBC Philharmonic for Moeran’s rarely heard Violin Concerto, and English music comes right up to date with David Horne’s Daedalus in Flight.

Following the sell-out success of 2013’s Doctor Who Prom, this year parents are invited to join their children for the first ever CBeebies Prom. Take a journey through the history of classical music with some of your favourite CBeebies characters, in an adventure that combines live music from the BBC Philharmonic and video action on screens around the Royal Albert Hall.

Tom Service explores masterworks from the 2014 BBC Proms, beginning with the epic drama of Bach's St John Passion. Much loved British conductor Sir Roger Norrington conducts the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Zürcher Sing-Akademie, with tenor James Gilchrist singing the part of the Evangelist.

The lilt of the waltz pulses through the first half of this programme – first in Ravel’s modernist reimagining in Valses nobles et sentimentales, and then in his witty La valse. French music takes a sacred turn after the interval with Duruflé’s Requiem, and elsewhere Swiss flute virtuoso Emmanuel Pahud premieres Simon Holt’s concerto Morpheus Wakes.

Turbulent mythical love meets poised Classical elegance in a concert from the BBC Symphony Orchestra that sets Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 alongside Ravel’s sensuous ballet score Daphnis and Chloe. Launching us far beyond either Mozart’s Vienna or Ravel’s Paris, Jonathan Dove’s new orchestral work Gaia Theory explores the idea of life on our planet evolving alongside the environment.

The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra make their debut at the festival. Music inspired by the east colours the programme, with the sounds and scents of bazaars and seraglios, as well as portraits of the Queen of Sheba by both Handel and Respighi. Also, violin virtuoso Daniel Hope premieres a new concerto by the remarkable young composer Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the great Sergei Prokofiev. Presented by Katie Derham.

Returning for its second concert this season, Les Arts Florissants is joined by founder-conductor William Christie for a Late Night Prom that transforms the Royal Albert Hall into the gilded splendour of the Chapel Royal at Versailles, combining choir, orchestra and soloists for Rameau’s Grands Motets.

In his proms concerto debut, French pianist Alexandre Tharaud performs one of Ravel's last great works, the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Conductor Juanjo Mena also leads the BBC Philharmonic in a Mahler masterpiece, the Fifth Symphony, which includes one of greatest love letters ever written - the famous Adagietto. Presented by Suzy Klein and Nicholas McCarthy.

From the Royal Albert Hall, Katie Derham presents a 150th anniversary celebration of the birth of Richard Strauss. The acclaimed Danish soprano Inger Dam-Jensen sings the composer's exquisite Four Last Songs in a prom which also showcases two of Strauss's rarely heard works - his majestic Festival Prelude and his Deutsche Motette for choir and four solo voices. The mood of late-romantic nostalgia continues with a performance of Elgar's Second Symphony. Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Singers.

Continuing our commemoration of the centenary since the outbreak of the First World War, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins explore English responses to conflict in Ivor Gurney’s War Requiem and Walton’s poignant First Symphony. Plus Sally Beamish’s accordion concerto.

John Wilson and his orchestra are joined by a spectacular ensemble of singers and dancers from Broadway and the West End for a unique performance of the classic musical Kiss Me, Kate. Hits including Another Op'nin, Another Show, Wunderbar and Too Darn Hot combine to create a dazzling evening of music, dance and theatre to mark 50 years since the death of its celebrated composer and lyricist Cole Porter. This hilarious take on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is performed in its glorious 1948 original orchestration, a highlight of the 2014 BBC Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall. Starring Ben Davis, Alexandra Silber, Tony Yazbeck and Louise Dearman.

The Proms continues to commemorate the anniversary of the outbreak of First World War, collaborating for the first time with the National Theatre for a concert inspired by Michael Morpurgo’s award-winning play War Horse. Lifesize War Horse puppets join the BBC Concert Orchestra, Gareth Malone and the Military Wives on stage for a performance that explores the music and stories of the Great War.

Tom Service invites us to listen to well-known, definitive masterworks from two of the greatest composers of all time with a fresh ear. Donald Runnicles takes on Beethoven's Fourth Symphony with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and joins forces with the National Youth Choir of Scotland and four top British soloists for Mozart's Requiem - a work of tragic beauty both musically and historically, left unfinished by Mozart just before his death in 1791. Soloists are the soprano Carolyn Sampson, mezzo-soprano Christine Rice, tenor Jeremy Ovenden and bass Neal Davies.

Donald Runnicles conducts a programme that looks to the past – a musical meditation on history, death and loss that still speaks powerfully today, 100 years after the start of the First World War. The concert sets Mahler’s bitterly elegiac Ninth Symphony against the ecstatic string writing of Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, a work reimagining an English identity that would so soon find itself under threat.

Sir John Tavener, who died in 2013, was one of the country's defining musical voices. His sacred choral music, inspired by his deep Orthodox faith, touches the hearts of millions and has been the soundtrack to some of this nation's most moving events. Just before he died he completed his Requiem Fragments, commissioned by the BBC for this Prom. The Tallis Scholars are conducted by Sir John's great friend Peter Phillips, who describes the work as a miraculous masterpiece. The concert begins with his radiant choral work, Ikon of Light. Presented by Katie Derham.

This concert from the European Union Youth Orchestra opens with Berio’s 20th-century classic, Sinfonia – a witty, whistle-stop tour through centuries of Western culture, from Bach to The Beatles. Shostakovich’s embattled Fourth Symphony attempts to reconcile the same conflicts and contradictions as Berio, but finds only Babel and madness, in one of the composer’s most confrontational works.