Prom 70: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet

BBC Proms 2024: The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jaime Martín perform Bacewicz and Prokofiev. Nemanja Radulović is soloist in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Bacewicz: Overture
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op 35

Prokofiev: A Selection of Movements from Romeo and Juliet

Nemanja Radulović (violin)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jaime Martín (conductor)

Sergey Prokofiev hoped his musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet would have ‘immediate appeal yet sound like nothing written before’. Even now, his score delivers on both fronts, showing the composer’s gift for melody and his ability to reconcile his music’s hard edge with a soft, romantic core. Jaime Martín conducts dramatic highlights from Prokofiev’s ballet score after charismatic Franco-Serbian soloist Nemanja Radulović sets off fireworks in the ultimate Romantic violin concerto. And, to begin, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales unleashes the strident energies of Grażyna Bacewicz’s thrilling Overture, which quotes the famous ‘V for Victory’ motif from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.