Broadcasting the Proms

The entire season of BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall is broadcast live exclusively on BBC Radio 3. All Proms are available to listen to online for seven days after broadcast and each week six Proms concerts will be repeated during afternoons on Radio 3.

Radio 3 also provides extensive context around the festival’s concerts and accompanying events at the Royal College of Music. Related programming includes interviews and performances by Proms artists on In Tune, a Proms focus in Composer of the Week, Essential Classics and CD Review, and regular Proms updates in Breakfast and Afternoon on 3.

The popular concert interval programme, Twenty Minutes, will include discussions surrounding Proms featured composers and a series of literary talks to complement the season’s wider cultural themes. Taking inspiration from music performed during the season, this will include the Proms Poetry Competition and the opportunity to hear Proms musicians reveal their private literary passions and explore the personal writing of some of the great composers through letters, diaries, autobiography and reviews.

Radio 3 programmes

BBC Proms are broadcast live exclusively on BBC Radio 3 and streamed online. Related programmes are as follows:

• Breakfast (weekdays, from 6.30am) Petroc Trelawny and Sara Mohr-Pietsch present music and updates on the season.
• Essential Classics (weekdays, 9.00am–12 noon) Rob Cowan and Sarah Walker provide recommendations of music and recordings to complement Proms listening.
• CD Review (Saturdays, 9.00am–12.15pm) Andrew McGregor features new releases and reissues from artists and orchestras appearing at the Proms.
• Composer of the Week (weekdays, 12 noon–1.00pm) Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of some of the main composers featured in this year’s Proms.
• Afternoon on 3 (weekdays, 2.00pm–4.30pm and Sundays, 2.00pm-4.00pm) Repeat broadcasts of BBC Proms concerts.
• In Tune (weekdays, 4.30pm–start of Prom) Live interviews, performances, and news surrounding the Proms season.
• A special programme on the First Night from the Royal College of Music will feature a selection of artists and musicians from across the whole season.
• Twenty Minutes Talks, interviews and features broadcast during the intervals of evening Proms.

BBC Proms on TV

Selected concerts are available on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC HD with BBC Two and BBC HD maintaining a schedule of weekly Proms on Saturdays and BBC Four a weekly Thursday/ Friday pattern. All TV broadcasts are available to watch for seven days after broadcast via bbc.co.uk/proms.

BBC Proms 2012 on BBC Two and BBC Four offers a season of extraordinary programmes with some of the world’s greatest musicians. Katie Derham is the face of the Proms on BBC Two for the third year running and the BBC Four Proms will be led on screen by Samira Ahmed, Charles Hazlewood, Suzy Klein and Petroc Trelawny. The programming will allow the viewer to experience directly the wide range of music and unique atmosphere of the Proms.

On BBC Two, the First and Last Nights of the season have music to reflect London 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. In a late-night double bill the great city of London and past royal events are celebrated in Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music.

One of the highlights of the 2012 BBC Proms is a complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies played by Daniel Barenboim and his outstanding ensemble of young professional musicians, the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. BBC Two and BBC Four will share the cycle, with BBC Four opening the series. BBC Two will feature Beethoven’s two most historically important and innovative symphonies – the ‘Eroica’ and the ‘Choral’ – and the climax of the BBC Proms on BBC Four will be a concert by another of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Bernard Haitink. As usual, the Last Night of the Proms celebrations will be seen on BBC Two, BBC One and BBC HD.

BBC Four will focus on youth across the season, broadcasting Bernstein's spectacular and iconoclastic Mass, performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Kristjan Järvi together with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Welsh youth choirs. Also featured will be a concert by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, under its Principal Conductor Vasily Petrenko, playing Messiaen’s exhilarating Turangalîla Symphony; and a late-night concert with the UK’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

BBC Two will showcase musical theatre with three special events: Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta The Yeomen of the Guard, an evening of songs from hit musicals by Ivor Novello and returning for a fourth year) the John Wilson Orchestra with a gala evening of Broadway hits.

BBC Four broadcasts will tie in with the London 2012 celebration with two concerts of English music – an evening of symphonies by Vaughan Williams and a concert featuring favourite works by Delius, Ireland and Walton.

BBC Proms Online

For all of the season’s latest news – both onstage and backstage – audiences can go to the BBC Proms 2012 website, which will go live at 2.00pm on 19 April. An extensive source of information about this year’s Proms, it provides details of events to book, watch or listen to.

Through the website, users are able to listen live in HD sound as well as browse an extensive archive of all performances, composers, works, soloists, conductors and ensembles across the festival’s 118-year history.

The website offers comprehensive programme notes for every concert in the 2012 festival and allows users to relive concerts with photos and video, offering them the chance to submit reviews and comments to the site. Other features include the ability to browse by composer, performer or work and, once the season is underway, a Proms Showcase with audio and video highlights of the week’s concerts. Full details of the season can also be accessed on the move via the Proms mobile site.

Users can find all of the latest news and behind-the-scenes insight as it happens on the Proms blog, and with live Twitter (@bbcproms) and Facebook (facebook.com/theproms) feeds.

Every Prom broadcast on BBC Radio or Television is also available to listen or watch again for seven days after broadcast at bbc.co.uk/proms.

Television broadcasts during the 2012 BBC Proms