BBC Proms 2015
Welcome to the 2015 BBC Proms. It’s 120 years since the very first Proms season in 1895 and the founding spirit and ambition of Sir Henry Wood remain at the core of everything we do.
Published: 23 April 2015
There are 32 premieres of new works, including first commissions by several young composers – an exciting and ever-renewing aspect of the Proms pioneered by Sir Henry, who delighted in introducing his audiences to contemporary works.
Edward Blakeman
Director, BBC Proms 2015
This year we mark the 150th anniversaries of Nielsen and Sibelius, we celebrate the 90th birthday year of Pierre Boulez and we welcome a glittering line-up of pianists for the complete concertos of Beethoven and Prokofiev and six of the wonderful late concertos by Mozart.
Sir Henry wanted great music to be accessible to all and so we are launching a new series of Sunday Matinees in the Royal Albert Hall with programmes that will have a wide appeal for all the family, while our Late Night Proms will showcase intimate solo Bach recitals alongside collaborations with six of the BBC’s network radio stations.
And thanks to the BBC – which has supported the Proms for almost 90 years – you can enjoy all this and more in the Royal Albert Hall, or on radio, television and online, with your mobile, tablet or computer. Your Proms are wherever and whenever you want them!
Alan Davey
Controller, BBC Radio 3
A very warm welcome to the 2015 BBC Proms. The Proms is a key part of what BBC Radio 3 is all about: it’s the time when we produce and broadcast – on air, in HD Sound online and with our partners in TV – the biggest and broadest classical music festival in the world. As always, we are broadcasting every Prom live so, even if you can’t make it in person to the Royal Albert Hall or Cadogan Hall, you can hear every note throughout the summer from the best seat in the house.
The Proms is also an important part of the mission of BBC Music: to make the best and most interesting music in the world available live, broadcast and on-demand to the widest possible audience. We are proud of the breadth of the Proms and of the number of people who take the festival to their hearts and experience the thrill of great music.
Here’s to a great Proms 2015.
MC4
Season at a glance
Marking the composers’ 150th anniversaries, Nielsen’s three concertos (for clarinet, flute and violin) and all seven of Sibelius’s symphonies are performed throughout the season
The 90th birthday year of Pierre Boulez is celebrated in a series of concerts, including two dedicated Proms Saturday Matinees performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the London Sinfonietta, and featuring the UK premiere of three of Boulez’s piano Notations arranged for orchestra by Johannes Schöllhorn
A focus on piano concertos with the complete Beethoven piano concertos performed by Leif Ove Andsnes, Prokofiev’s five piano concertos performed by three pianists in a single Prom, and six of Mozart’s late piano concertos performed across the season. Both of Ravel’s piano concertos will also be featured
A new series of Sunday Matinees designed to introduce audiences young and old to classical music:
- BBC Music’s classical music initiative Ten Pieces culminates in a celebration of children’s creative responses to 10 pieces of music in two BBC Proms concerts
- Nicholas Collon and the Aurora Orchestra perform Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony from memory
- Eric Whitacre conducts the European premiere of his latest choral and orchestral work, Deep Field, a BBC co-commission inspired by the other-worldly photographs of distant galaxies sent back to earthfrom the Hubble Space Telescope
- The musical mind of Sherlock Holmes is explored with contributions from BBC Sherlock writer and actor Mark Gatiss, and presenter and Radio 3 presenter Matthew Sweet
- Sir David Attenborough narrates a Prom inspired by his television series Life Story, with the BBC Concert Orchestra performing Murray Gold’s soundtrack music for the programmes
- The Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, gives audience members of all ages an opportunity to see an afternoon performance from a major visiting orchestra
The solo music of J. S. Bach is explored in a series of intimate Late Night Proms given by Alina Ibragimova and Sir András Schiff, and a performance of all six of Bach’s solo cello suites performed by Yo-Yo Ma in one concert
Also in the Late Night slot is a series of adventurous musical collaborations with BBC national radio stations – Radio 1, 1Xtra, 4, 6 Music and the Asian Network
Neuroscientist, musician and author Daniel Levitin presents a Proms Lecture unravelling the mystery of how our brains make and remember music. The Aurora Orchestra explore this further with a performance of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony from memory
Choral masterpieces during the season include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bruckner’s Mass No. 3, Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in G minor and Magnificat, Orff’s Carmina burana, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast
John Wilson and the John Wilson Orchestra make two appearances at the Proms in 2015, marking the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra and celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s music for stage and screen
Bryn Terfel returns to the Proms for the festival premiere of Fiddler on the Roof in the first Proms partnership with Grange Park Opera
The operatic offerings for 2015 are Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Glyndebourne, Monteverdi’s Orfeo from the English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and the Proms premiere of the recently reconstructed Prologue to Shostakovich’s unfinished satirical opera Orango
Marin Alsop returns to the Last Night podium after her triumphant debut in 2013 to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus in the world-famous finale of the festival
The BBC Philharmonic performs the world premiere of a newly discovered work by Messiaen. Other new works during the season include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Symphony No. 4 and a new string quartet by Colin Matthews, as well as premieres from Eleanor Alberga, Alissa Firsova, Joanna Lee, Shiori Usui and Hugh Wood
Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie celebrates her 50th birthday with a self-curated Proms Chamber Music concert including premieres by Bertram Wee and John Psathas
A week dominated by the music of Stravinsky also launches a mini-series of three of his scores for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: Petrushka, The Firebird and The Rite of Spring
There are 21 world premieres this season, of which 13 are BBC commissions, with a further 11 European, UK or London premieres, of which 4 are BBC commissions or
co-commissions
Visiting orchestras include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra,
St Petersburg Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic
The BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and BBC Choruses remain the backbone of the Proms, collectively performing almost 40 of the 76 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall
Soloists include percussionists Colin Currie and Dame Evelyn Glennie, pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Maria João Pires, Mitsuko Uchida and Katia and Marielle Labèque, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, violinists Nicola Benedetti and Alina Ibragimova, trumpeter Alison Balsom, soprano Ailish Tynan, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and tenor Jonas Kaufmann
The BBC Proms Youth Choir joins Sir Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic for Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius on the penultimate night of the season
The annual Free Prom features the world premiere of Guy Barker’s The Lanterne of Light, performed by Alison Balsom, alongside Orff’s Carmina burana
There are 92 concerts in the 2015 festival – 76 at the Royal Albert Hall, including 12 Late Night Proms and six Sunday Matinees, plus 12 Cadogan Hall concerts and four Proms in the Park celebrations across the UK
There are over 75 Proms Extra events at the Royal College of Music, offering additional context to the main programmes in the Royal Albert Hall
At Cadogan Hall, eight Monday lunchtime Proms Chamber Music recitals include a Sondheim Cabaret marking the composer’s 85th birthday, and four Proms Saturday Matinees include debut performances from early music ensembles B’Rock – Baroque Orchestra Ghent and Apollo’s Fire
This year there will be more Proms content available online than ever before across PC, mobile and tablet. Music-lovers will be able to listen to every Prom live and on-demand for 30 days in HD Sound on the BBC iPlayer Radio app and find everything they need to know about the 2015 BBC Proms season at bbc.co.uk/proms
A brand-new BBC Proms Guide app provides a digital version of the printed Proms Guide, available for mobile and tablet devices on iOS and Android
Every Prom is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and in 2015 BBC Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 4, Radio 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network each broadcast Proms. Television broadcasts will go out on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and CBBC. Proms Extra, the Saturday evening magazine show, returns on BBC Two for its third season
Tickets go on sale at 9.00am on Saturday 16 May via bbc.co.uk/proms, by telephone on 0845 401 5040, or in person at the Royal Albert Hall. Season Tickets, Weekend Promming Passes and Proms in the Park tickets go on sale a day earlier at 9.00am on Friday 15 May
Promming tickets in 2015 are £5 for the 10th year running. For the fourth year, seats are half-price for those aged 18 and under for all Proms across the season (except the Last Night)
