Prom 74: The Last Night
There were funeral pyres to light, mountains to climb, and, of course, there was Jerusalem to build. All in a Last Night’s work. Another record-breaking season – an astonishing 94% of capacity – thundered to a close…
Proms 63 & 64: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, Royal Albert Hall
The surprises came thick and fast – but variants on a theme of Lady Gaga in the style of Bach was not one we might have anticipated. It came courtesy of the young Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic…
Prom 58: Mendelssohn “Elijah”, Gabireli Consort & Players, McCreesh, Royal Albert Hall
When the fiery chariot finally arrived to transport Elijah aloft and the antiphonal trumpets and drums and assorted ophicleides of Paul McCreesh’s mightily augmented Gabrieli Players Consort and Players were rent asunder by the open-stopped thrust of…
Prom 53: Mahler Youth Orchestra, Davis, Royal Albert Hall
Sir Colin Davis’ vim and vigour has always seemed so eternal, so unaffected by the advancing years, that it was strange, not to say difficult, to discover him conducting now from a chair. You could see and…
Prom 52: London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Royal Albert Hall
Two Prokofiev symphonies for the price of one – the First and Fifth, the little and large of the canon – and surprisingly it was the bantam weight First that yielded Valery Gergiev’s biggest surprises and tiniest…
Prom 43: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Litton, Royal Albert Hall
There are programmes and there are Proms programmes and this three-tier special was of mythic proportions. It started as it meant to go on, with a big bang, as Andrew Litton and the Royal Philharmonic brasses and…
Prom 38: BBC Concert Orchestra, Lockhart, Royal Albert Hall
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the shower… the sound of those slicing, dicing, violin glissandi – halfway between screams and flashes of cold steel – sent ripples of recognition and nervous…
Proms 30 & 31, National Youth Orchestra, Jurowski/ Nigel Kennedy, Royal Albert Hall
The building had barely cooled down after the Simon Bolivar Mahler the previous night but youth still ruled at the Proms with the arrival of our own National Youth Orchestra and that eternal wild child Nigel Kennedy…
Prom 24: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Davis, Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall can be an intimate place, mysteriously transforming on occasions from monster auditorium to private salon. There’s something about a small group of players, or in this case singers – the BBC Singers –…
Prom 21: CBSO & CBSO Chorus, Nelsons, Royal Albert Hall
At 33, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Music Dirctor Andris Nelsons is young but still almost a decade older than Richard Strauss was when he showed the world how he planned to go on with his…