Not even a pandemic could stop ‘The World’s Greatest Classical Music Festival’ from going ahead in its 125th year – albeit in a different format. This is “not the Proms as we know them, but the Proms as we need them”.
BBC Proms 2020 Photo: BBC Proms
The BBC Proms 2020 celebrates some of the best past Proms concerts selected by audiences from the unrivalled BBC archive. The Proms also aims to have some of the greatest musicians of our time and exciting emerging talent at the Royal Albert Hall by the last two weeks of the festival, performing live for an on-air and online audience only.
Our season of the BBC Proms 2020 comes to an end this week. Here's what to look forward to.
Saturday 19 September, 8pm
Laura Marling and the 12 Ensemble - 'For You' live at the Royal Albert Hall
Singer-songwriter Laura Marling is joined by pioneering London-based string group the 12 Ensemble to perform brand new arrangements by Rob Moose, including songs from her Mercury Prize-nominated album Song for Our Daughter.
Sunday 20 September, 6pm
St Matthew Passion
Bach’s St Matthew Passion stands not only as one of the high points of Bach’s sacred music but has been hailed as one of ‘the greatest artistic monuments of mankind’. Phillipe Herreweghe’s expressive but fleet-footed Bach won praise at his Proms debut in 1996. Ian Bostridge, then near the start of his career, sings the role of the Evangelist.
Ian Bostridge (Evangelist), Franz-Josef Selig (Christ), Sibylla Rubens, Andreas Scholl, Werner Güra, Dietrich Henschel, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino/Philippe Herreweghe
Monday 21 September, 1pm
Live Proms: Paavo Järvi conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra
Benjamin Grosvenor performs Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Paavo Järvi, bookended by Ravel’s neo-Baroque masterpiece Le Tombeau de Couperin and Mozart’s titanic Symphony No 41.
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Jason Evans (trumpet), Philharmonia Orchestra/Paavo Järvi
Wednesday 23 September, 8pm
Live Proms: Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason
At only 21 Sheku Kanneh-Mason is already one of the most sought-after cellists, having won BBC Young Musician in 2016 and performed two years later to a worldwide audience of over 35 million at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
For this specially pre-recorded Proms recital he is joined by 24-year-old Isata Kanneh-Mason, the eldest of the family’s seven musical siblings, who released her first solo CD last year to great acclaim
Beethoven: Cello Sonata in C major, Op 102 No. 1
Samuel Barber: Cello Sonata
Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata in G minor
Saturday 26 September, 8pm
Live Last Night of the BBC Proms
Soprano Golda Schultz and violinist Nicola Benedetti join Dalia Stasevska, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers in a programme that includes music from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, a world premiere from Andrea Tarrodi, music by Richard Strauss, treats from Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams.
The night comes to a jubilant close with all the traditional Last Night favourites including the Fantasia on British Sea-Songs; You’ll Never Walk Alone; Rule, Britannia; Pomp and Circumstance March No1; and Jerusalem.
Nicola Benedetti (violin), Golda Schulz (soprano), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Dalia Stasevska
