18/07/2009

The First Night of the Proms: 18 - 19 July

The 2009 BBC Proms start with a bang – literally – as Stravinsky’s Fireworks begin a fizzing First Night Concert: a celebratory occasion blazing a trail for the season to come. It’s given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Chorus, musical forces that underpin the summer concert series, under the direction of their Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek. And there are plenty of visiting musicians too, top international artists, represented in this opening night extravaganza by French sisters Katia and Marielle Labeque. They’ll be playing Poulenc’s witty and iconoclastic Concerto for Two Pianos; another French composer Emmanuel Chabrier, provides an Ode to Music, sung by the young Irish soprano Aylish Tynan; and the secular celebrations are given a spiritual dimension with a psalm-setting by Anton Bruckner.

World Service broadcast programme
Stravinsky: Fireworks
Chabrier: Ode à la musique
Poulenc: Concerto for 2 pianos
Bruckner: Psalm 150

Performers
Ailish Tynan, soprano
Katia and Marielle Labèque, pianos
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek, conductor