The 2017 BBC Proms at a glance
2017 marks 90 years since the BBC took over the running, financing and broadcasting of the Proms and 70 years since the Last Night of the Proms was first broadcast on television.
Published: 20 April 2017
A stellar opening-weekend line-up, including conductors Edward Gardner, Daniel Barenboim and Bernard Haitink, and soloists Igor Levit, Lisa Batiashvili and Isabelle Faust.
Proms At... returns with five London venues and - for the first time - travels outside of the capital to Hull, the UK’s 2017 City of Culture, for a performance of Handel’s Water Music in its 300th anniversary year.
Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood is brought to life in the special Ten Pieces Presents... Sir Henry’s Magnificent Musical Inspirations! with an array of young artists.
The first ever Relaxed Prom - offering an informal environment for everyone from children and adults with autism, sensory and communication impairments and learning disabilities to individuals who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind and partially sighted - presented in collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Royal Albert Hall education and outreach team.
A tribute to Proms conductor Malcolm Sargent marking the 50th anniversary of his death, with a recreation of his 500th Proms concert and a Last Night tribute.
An exploration of how politics and religion have inspired and influenced composers across the ages:
- A hundred years on from the 1917 Russian Revolution, a focus on the composers whose lives and music were influenced by it.
- Five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation, a focus on the music it inspired, including a Reformation Day curated by John Butt, featuring five centuries of Passions, plus J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, with chorales sung by the audience.
Celebrations of the birthdays of two pioneers of American Minimalism: John Adams (70) and Philip Glass (80); including the first complete live performance of Glass and Ravi Shankar’s 1990 studio album Passages.
The UK’s first BME orchestra, Chineke!, and 2016 BBC Young Musician Sheku Kanneh-Mason, make their Proms debuts.
Conductor/arranger Jules Buckley returns for two Proms: a Late Night with the Heritage Orchestra exploring the music of 1960s icon Scott Walker; and a concert with his Metropole Orkest featuring the music of jazz giant Charles Mingus.
All three of Elgar’s symphonies, including Anthony Payne’s completion of the unfinished Third.
The Proms marks the 70th anniversary of partition and independence on the Indian subcontinent, with a concert of Indian and Pakistani classical music, curated by the culture heritage trust Darbar.
Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra celebrate the 50th anniversary of the pioneering record label Stax/Volt Revue’s first tour of the UK.
Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé take audiences Beyond The Score in a multimedia exploration of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 (From The New World), devised by Gerard McBurney, combining actors, projections and live musical examples.
The BBC Proms Youth Ensemble joins the pioneering American group Bang on a Can All-Stars and their six-piece amplified ensemble for a concert of avant-garde Minimalism, rock and funk.
Marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi, French period-instrument ensemble Pygmalion present the Vespers of 1610, while British vocal ensemble I Fagiolini launches the Proms Chamber Music series with a mostly Monteverdi concert.
Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and virtuoso trumpeter James Morrison join the BBC Concert Orchestra and John Mauceri for a double tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie in the centenary year of their births.
The BBC Proms Learning programme continues to nurture emerging talent with performances from the BBC Proms Youth Choir, BBC Proms Youth Ensemble, and new works by BBC Proms Inspire’s young composers.
All four of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos and a pair of consecutive concerts dedicated to his music with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard and the Latvian Radio Choir.
Marking the 100th anniversary of Finnish Independence, an exploration of the nationalistic music of Sibelius, as well as traditional Finnish folk music.
Tom Service and Nicholas Collon introduce Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), with live excerpts, before the Aurora Orchestra performs the complete symphony from memory.
Proms favourite John Wilson returns with his orchestra for two semi-staged performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.
2017 sees the start of two ongoing multi-year series - Handel’s oratorios, beginning with Israel In Egypt, and Sir András Schiff’s presentation of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier (with Book One this year, Book Two in 2018) - as well as the continuation of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s exploration of Berlioz, with The Damnation Of Faust.
The Proms welcomes an array of visiting orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin and two great American orchestras: the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and (making its Proms debut) the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
The BBC Orchestras and Choirs form the backbone of the Proms, performing in 30 concerts during the festival.
In a UK first, BBC Radio 3 streams the entire season as a lossless audio stream at bbc.co.uk/proms, letting listeners experience the concerts as if they were present at the Royal Albert Hall.
In numbers
75 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
72 Proms Extra events at the Imperial College Union
29 premieres including 15 world premieres and 14 European, UK or London premieres
10 Late Night Proms 8 Matinees
13 Proms At... events including:
8 Proms Chamber Music concerts at Cadogan Hall
4 Last Night celebrations across the UK
