Orchestras & Ensembles

International ensembles

The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a regular Proms fixture in recent years, returns with its conductor Daniel Barenboim for Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, featuring Barenboim as piano soloist alongside violinist Guy Braunstein and cellist Kian Soltani (18 August)

The eminent American Boston Symphony Orchestra travels to London for two Proms concerts (22 & 23 August), conducted by its Music Director Andris Nelsons in two monumental programmes including symphonies by Mahler, Haydn and Shostakovich

Andrew Litton conducts the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in only its second ever appearance at the Proms. World premieres from Ørjan Matre and Alissa Firsova
are complemented by Mendelssohn and Stravinsky
(27 August)

The St Petersburg Philharmonic showcases Russian repertoire with Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov across two concerts with soloists Nikolai Lugansky (7 September) and Julia Fischer (8 September), concluding its second programme with English favourite Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations

The distinguished Vienna Philharmonic is conducted by Semyon Bychkov and Sir Simon Rattle for two consecutive evening performances in the final week of the Proms. Bychkov conducts a very Viennese programme with Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F major and the rarely heard Symphony No. 2 in E flat major by Franz Schmidt (10 September), while Rattle conducts Elgar’s English choral epic The Dream of Gerontius on the penultimate night of the season (11 September)

International chamber ensembles include the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (23, 24, 26 July), B’Rock – Baroque Orchestra Ghent (8 August), American baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire (15 August) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (28 August)

The European BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the Apollon Musagète Quartet, and the American Emerson String Quartet, established in 1971, both make their Proms debuts as part of the Proms Chamber Music series at Cadogan Hall (3 August & 31 August)

UK ensembles

After its 2014 appearance, Aurora returns with Nicholas Collon to bring the Proms audience another major orchestral work from memory, this time Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony (No. 6 in F major), as well as Brett Dean’s own Pastoral Symphony and the world premiere of Smatter Hauler by Anna Meredith – also a memorised piece (2 August)

The London Symphony Orchestra performs all five Prokofiev piano concertos in a single concert with three great pianists: Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Babayan and Alexei Volodin conducted by Valery Gergiev (28 July)

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Andris Nelsons perform Proms favourite Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony (No. 9 in D minor), as well as the London premiere of John Woolrich’s Falling Down for orchestra and contra-bassoon with CBSO principal Margaret Cookhorn (19 July)
The Hallé, Hallé Choir and Hallé Youth Choir, London Philharmonic Choir and Trinity Boys Choir, conducted by Sir Mark Elder and with soloists Robin Tritschler and Iain Paterson, join forces to perform Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard oratorio Sancta civitas (30 July)

The John Wilson Orchestra performs two distinctive programmes: the first celebrates the work of Frank Sinatra with singer Seth MacFarlane (7 August); the second explores the stage and screen music of Leonard Bernstein with the Maida Vale Singers and international soloists
(5 September)

The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with Franck Ollu and the London Sinfonietta with Thierry Fischer celebrate the 90th birthday year of Pierre Boulez in two Proms Saturday Matinee concerts. Both ensembles also include world premieres by Shiori Usui and Joanna Lee (25 July) and a BBC/Lucerne Festival co-commission Open to Infinity: a Grain of Sand by Christian Mason (29 August)