Just glancing over the forthcoming concerts I am struck by
the sheer variety on offer. The centenaries and anniversaries have, of course,
been covered with, not only a complete Ring cycle from Daniel Barenboim and the
Staatskapelle Berlin, but also Tristan
and Isolde from Semyon Bychkov and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tannhäuser from Donald Runnicles and the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Parsifal
from Sir Mark Elder and the Halle Orchestra.
Lutosławski is represented by his Variations on a theme of Paganini, Cello Concerto, Symphonic
Variations, Piano Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra and Paroles tissées.
Benjamin Britten has his Four Sea Interludes
from Peter Grimes, Sinfonia de
Requiem, a semi-staged Billy Budd
from Sir Andrew Davis and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Canticles, Prelude and Fugue and Phaedra.
George Lloyd has his final work Requiem
performed alongside Britten’s A Boy was
Born at a late night Prom and his HMS
Trinidad March at the Last Night.
British music is very well served generally with works by
Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Holst, Walton and Arnold as well as some unexpected
treats from Edmund Rubbra and Sir Granville Bantock who has no less than five
works performed. Sir Michael Tippett is very well represented in a number of
concerts giving this still underrated composer a boost.
The current generation of British composers are well
represented by Colin and David Matthews, the latter’s A Vision of the Sea receiving its world premiere. Mark-Anthony
Turnage’s Frieze also gets its world
premiere as does John McCabe’s Joybox.
Period instrument performances are not forgotten with Sir
John Elliot Gardner and his English Baroque soloist and Monteverdi Choir giving
us Bach Oratorios. The main Viennese classics are not ignored with plenty of
Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms and Mahler as well as the great Slavic composers
Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and even Borodin and Glazunov. The USA is not left out,
with works by Conlon Nancarrow, Frank Zappa, Philip Glass, Morton Feldman being
featured.
Looking at the number of artists appearing is just as
impressive with far too many to mention in this short blog.
With a breadth of range covering music from Gesualdo through
Stockhausen to contemporary composers, Roger Wright has pulled off the
seemingly impossible. If there is not a feast of concerts here for everyone
this year then you will probably never be satisfied.
Have a look for yourself on the BBC Proms website to see the
complete listing of concerts www.bbc.co.uk/proms
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