Prom 10: Beethoven & Strauss, Royal Albert Hall

Aurora Orchestra breaks the mould time after time, with innovative approaches to classical music. In this first for the Proms, the players do away with their written sheet music, and play a monumental Beethoven symphony from memory.

Playing from memory allows the orchestra to communicate most directly with the audience – no music stands between us and them – and also reawakens the daring novelty of a composition to which we have become accustomed, but which startled listeners in its day.

Beethoven’s Symphony No 3 was dubbed the Eroica in honour of the composer’s hero, Napoleon. When the leader proved to have feet of clay, Beethoven scratched out the dedication, but the heroism theme lives on in his belief in the noble potential of mankind as a whole. Its scale, variety and endless inventiveness make it a thrilling piece for the concert hall, and perhaps never more so than in this daring performance.

After the ethereal Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, the conductor of Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon, will on stage unpick the Eroica, with BBC music presenter Tom Service, and players will put in musical examples. Having taken the symphony apart and reassembled it, in the concert’s second half the whole work is played, the players having learned it off by heart.

This promises to be one of the most illuminating evenings at the Proms, and is sure to spark a demand for more of the same.