Guide to the BBC Proms 2024
This weekend, the largest classical music festival in the world kicked off at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Now known as the BBC Proms, the festival will last for two months, during which there is at least one concert every day, the majority of which feature full orchestras.
The "Proms" were created in 1895 by conductor Henry Wood to encourage neophytes to hear classical music, often unknown outside of luxury concert halls. "Promenade" concerts were standing-room events where you could come and go as you pleased, and tickets were super cheap. Standing-room tickets at the Proms today still go for just $10, and the massive Royal Albert Hall accommodates at least 1,000 of these tickets between the arena floor and the top level under the dome. People line up all day for a chance to stand close to the stage. The Proms have their own fanbase, and the atmosphere is more electric than any other symphonic concerts.
The Proms' modern ownership by the BBC boosts its mission by broadcasting the concerts all over the world for free. They make terrific listening for working, cooking, commuting, or any number of activities, so I highly recommend them. You can listen to them via the free BBC Sounds app. Once you search for "BBC Proms" on this app, recent concerts appear like episodes of a podcast. (Unfortunately, they've never implemented "tracks" to where you can easily skip things like the interviews during the intermission.)
Although orchestral classical music is the main thrust of the festival, with orchestras from all over Europe contributing during their summer tours, there is also room for a bit of pop music, film music, and world music.
Here are some of the most interesting concerts of the season:
WEEKS ONE & TWO
7/20 - PROM 2 - DISCO MUSIC
The BBC Concert Orchestra has a lot to live up to after their "Northern Soul" concert was the surprise highlight of last year. Expect to hear Boney M's Rasputin and Walter Murphy's disco arrangement of Beethoven's 5th, but there's also a good chance of learning a new song or two.
7/21 - PROM 4 - SIR MARK ELDER'S FAREWELL CONCERT
Elder is one of our greatest conductors and this will be his last concert as the music director of the Hallé Orchestra of Manchester. He has been their director since 1999 and their annual Prom is always very good. Mahler's 5th Symphony - featured in the climax of Tár - is one of the conducting 'Everests'; while it's not the largest or longest or flashiest symphony out there, only an experienced conductor can keep its momentum intact over its 70 minutes.
7/23 - PROM 7 - RARE EARLY ITALIAN BAROQUE
The very good counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orliński makes his Proms debut with the energetic Italian ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro. This hour-long "late night" program promises a vibrant variety of composers of the 1600s.
7/29 - PROM 14 - DEBUT OF YUNCHAN LIM
This Korean pianist won the Van Cliburn competition two years ago at the age of 18, and makes his Proms debut with Beethoven's powerful "Emperor" concerto.
7/30 - PROM 15 - TURANGALÎLA
Messiaen's mammoth Turangalîla-Symphony is one of the most popular symphonies of the last 80 years. Believe it or not, the character Leela on Futurama was named after it. It's still rare to hear it, though, because it requires a rare instrument: the theremin-like, early electronic Ondes Martenot. Also on the program, a piece by Anna Clyne which will mix the words of Emily Dickinson with cutting-edge live electronics.
8/2 - PROM 18 - SAM SMITH
I don't listen to his music, but I like when the Proms brings pop artists on to perform their music with a live orchestra. The 2024 Proms include two of the most famous headlining artists who have ever been on their schedule (see Week 8 for the other).
WEEKS THREE & FOUR
8/3 - PROM 19 - THE CLOUD MESSENGER
The Proms do a great service to the legacies of British composers, helping masterworks like Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto become beloved classics through regular exposure. They also occasionally unearth rarities like Gustav Holst's The Cloud Messenger, based on a Sanskrit text. Holst's popular The Planets has been performed over 90 times at the Proms (nearly every year since it was written), but this piece never has.
8/5 - PROM 23 - BUSONI'S PIANO CONCERTO
I have been dying for Ferruccio Busoni's gaudy & gargantuan Piano Concerto to make an appearance at the Proms. Last performed there in 1988, it finally returns to mark the centenary of the Italian composer's passing. The piece is so rare because a pianist must play incredibly taxing finger-work for 70 minutes without rest, and - for some reason - a men's chorus is required briefly during the finale. Such was the hubris of composers in the early 20th century.
8/12 - PROM 32 - SAXOPHONIST JESS GILLAM
Crowd-favorite young artist Jess Gillam is playing a new concerto written for her by composer Karl Jenkins who started his career as a saxophonist. (He is most well-known for Palladio, co-opted by the "A Diamond is Forever" commercials.)
8/14 - PROM 34 - CUTTING EDGE FILM SOUNDTRACKS
The London Contemporary Orchestra seeks to highlight the new generation of film composers including music from Tár, The Menu, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. I will be very surprised if we don't see any Mica Levi (Jackie, Zola) on the program.
8/15 - PROM 35 - UNSUNG JAZZ COMPOSERS
The BBC Scottish Symphony is shining a spotlight on two mammoth orchestral works by important American jazz composers. Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite (1945) and Anthony Braxton's Composition no. 27 (1973). Although there are recordings available of these works, they have never entered the repertoire of the American orchestras which should be championing them.
WEEKS FIVE & SIX
8/19 - PROM 40 - BACH COLLEGIUM JAPAN
The first of its kind in Japan, this Baroque ensemble reveres the precision of Bach's music like no other and is one of the few to record all of Bach's cantatas (across 55 CD albums). They only appeared at the Proms once before, in 2007.
8/20 - PROM 41 - ALL MOZART BY ENSEMBLE RESONANZ
A first appearance from a Hamburg-based ensemble known mostly for contemporary music. I normally don't go for a concert with such a "greatest hits" vibe, but I am intrigued to hear a different perspective on this music that maybe won't be focused on "period-appropriate style".
8/24 - BRISTOL BEACON 1 - THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE
For the last 10 years, the Proms have been incorporating more and more events outside of London, enlarging their repertoire by playing bespoke concerts in unique venues. In this concert from Bristol, the Paraorchestra - which includes musicians with and without disabilities - will perform Mozart's 40th Symphony from memory, interspersed with new compositions, all while moving around the audience in some kind of choreography. I don't know quite what to expect, or whether it will translate well over a radio broadcast, but tossing out the normal concert experience in order to celebrate individuals amongst an ensemble is an exciting experiment.
8/28 - PROM 50 - CZECH PHILHARMONIC
Two nights of concerts of Czech music played by Czech musicians. They are both essential, but I'll highlight the 2nd night, when they will play Janáček's grand choral Glagolitic Mass, Dvořák's rarely performed Piano Concerto, and an unearthed treasure by Vítězslava Kaprálová, who might have become a well-known composer if she hadn't died in 1940 at age 25.
8/28 - PROM 51 - TINARIWEN
An absolute must-listen, one of Africa's preeminent ensembles, the Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert in Mali will play a late-night program of their signature "desert blues".
WEEKS SEVEN & EIGHT
9/1 - PROM 56 - ANTON BRUCKNER BICENTENNIAL
Three days before Bruckner's 200th Birthday, the Berlin Philharmonic plays his 5th Symphony. The Bavarian Radio Symphony will also play Bruckner's 4th Symphony this week. They are both tremendous works.
9/2 - PROM 57 - HENRY MANCINI
A tribute to the iconic film composer of the swinging '60s that includes The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Peter Gunn theme.
9/4 - PROM 59 - ALL FRENCH MUSIC
The Orchestre de Paris visits this week and plays only the 'hits', so I find it funny that the resident BBC Symphony follows them the next day with a much more interesting French concert. Faure's beloved Requiem shares the program with a rarely performed suite by him, and it's all capped off by the choral version of Ravel's sensual Daphnis and Chloe which is the only way it should be performed in my opinion.
9/11 - PROM 69 - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
Do I need to say more? This was my favorite band in 2009. This was everybody's favorite band in 2009. The entire album Lungs will be performed with orchestra.
9/12 - PROM 71 - THE ART OF FUGUE
From many, to just one. On this program, the pianist Sir András Schiff alone plays Bach's enigmatic, culminating dissertation. On the rare occasions when a solo pianist performs to a packed house of 5,000 people in the Royal Albert Hall - especially with the intricate and delicate lines of Bach, as Schiff has done memorably in the past - the atmosphere has a particularly rapt hush to it.
This is certainly not anything like the famous "Last Night of the Proms", when beach balls and Union Jacks will fly above the audience, but it will be its own fitting climax to the season: the ultimate celebration of the power of music, that one small "voice" can overwhelm such a vast hall.