Prom 43: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Litton, Royal Albert Hall
There are programmes and there are Proms programmes and this three-tier special was of mythic proportions. It started as it meant to go on, with a big bang, as Andrew Litton and the Royal Philharmonic brasses and…
Prom 38: BBC Concert Orchestra, Lockhart, Royal Albert Hall
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the shower… the sound of those slicing, dicing, violin glissandi – halfway between screams and flashes of cold steel – sent ripples of recognition and nervous…
Proms 30 & 31, National Youth Orchestra, Jurowski/ Nigel Kennedy, Royal Albert Hall
The building had barely cooled down after the Simon Bolivar Mahler the previous night but youth still ruled at the Proms with the arrival of our own National Youth Orchestra and that eternal wild child Nigel Kennedy…
Prom 24: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Davis, Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall can be an intimate place, mysteriously transforming on occasions from monster auditorium to private salon. There’s something about a small group of players, or in this case singers – the BBC Singers –…
Prom 21: CBSO & CBSO Chorus, Nelsons, Royal Albert Hall
At 33, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Music Dirctor Andris Nelsons is young but still almost a decade older than Richard Strauss was when he showed the world how he planned to go on with his…
Catalani “La Wally”, Opera Holland Park
The aria – “Ebben? Ne andrò lontano” – famously adorning the films Diva and A Single Man is almost as ubiquitous as the eponymous heroine’s name – which features in the Guinness Book of Records as being…
Prom 9: Hallé Orchestra, Elder, Royal Albert Hall
Homecomings, real and imagined, marked out this season’s Hallé Prom. For Sibelius, brazen horn fanfares and myriad string ostinati carried us at the gallop to the heart of the Finnish heartlands. Everything in his rarely performed Scènes…
Prom 4: Brian “Gothic Symphony”, Royal Albert Hall
Two entire blocks of stalls and at least a third of the arena had been commandeered by the children’s choruses and four brass bands, each with its own timpanist; the combined BBC National Orchestra of Wales and…
Prom 2: Rossini “William Tell”, Royal Albert Hall
You couldn’t see the Lone Ranger for dust – and I doubt we’ve ever heard the most famous gallop in music despatched with such fleet-footed (or should that be hooved) panache. But there are another four or…
Puccini “Tosca”, Royal Opera House
Bring together three of the most intuitive talents (and biggest stars) on the planet, meld them under the baton of Antonio Pappano whose command of every caress, swoon, and dramatic impulse of Puccini’s Tosca is not learned…