Booking for the BBC Proms opens this weekend. Here are our favourite must-book performances you need to see
The intensely moving melody of Nimrod, often played on solemn occasions, is one of the best-loved pieces of British music. But this plangeant air, the portrait of an unnamed friend, is only one of 14 variations by Edward Elgar on his own memorable theme.
Year on year the Proms welcomes into the classical repertoire the best of music from other genres, here expertly performed by two jazz virtuosi Detroit-born Dianne Reeves is considered by many to be the heiress to Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.
Job applications can be a time-consuming and elaborate business, but when Claudio Monteverdi bid to become music director at St Mark’s in Venice he ticked all the boxes with this work. The 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi will be marked at this years Proms
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James MacMillan’s European Requiem was commissioned by a festival in Oregon before the Brexit vote, and first performed there in February 2016, but its European premiere at this Prom will be highly charged, given its theme of a unified Europe.
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Fleet-footed Mercury, warlike Mars, joyful Jupiter… the seven heavenly bodies depicted in Gustav Holst’s The Planets are masterpieces of musical painting. Though much recorded, nothing prepares the listener for hearing this great piece live.
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Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 played in this concert by the terrific BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Thomas Søndergård, the soloist tonight is the dynamic 26-year-old Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, grand prize winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition. Musical fireworks are guaranteed
The pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim is among the most popular guests at the Proms, bringing outstanding music year after year. This time, with his German orchestra the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Israeli-born Barenboim conducts two compelling works.
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Music was pouring out of the great Austrian composers in the 18th and 19th century, but Vienna had no permanent orchestra to perform it until 1842, with the founding of today’s Vienna Philharmonic. Now one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, it pays two visits to the 2017 BBC Proms.
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Music gets the feet tapping and the pulse racing, and for those who like to show that, the first Relaxed Prom is here. Perfect for families with small children, wriggly rellies and adults who just can’t keep still when the music takes them on this one-hour ride.
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The sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, the world-famous Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1895. Despite its modest, provincial beginnings, and enriched in its early days by the arrival from Germany of many fine musicians, it is now one of the most acclaimed orchestras in the world.
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All three Proms concerts on Sunday 20 August are inspired by religious music, and dubbed Reformation Day, at the heart of the programmes are settings old and new of sacred texts. This third and final concert is a given over entirely to the St John Passion by JS Bach. it is a work of ever widening appeal, touching those of all faiths and none, with its story-telling and compassion.
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With its big, broad melodies and lush orchestration, Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 is universally loved. It takes its nickname the New World from the Czech-born composer’s adopted home of America. And it is the sole work in this very special Prom.
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Composer, conductor and pianist, the Rachmaninov of the 20th century was a towering genius who after a disastrous first symphony in 1895 struggled to recover and then hit a rich seam. The Piano Concerto No 3 and the Symphony No 2, played tonight, are both from the productive early 1900s and will now take to the Proms this year.
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