TheSound
An Englishman in New York
The BBC recently released details of this summer's Proms season...by any definition the oldest, biggest, and best classical music festival in the world, runs from the second week in July to the first week in September, 70+ often sold-out concerts in the 6,000 seater Royal Albert Hall in London.
There's some amazing stuff this year even by Proms standards...
A complete cycle of ALL 9 Beethoven symphonies performed over a few nights by Daniel Barenboim and his West–Eastern Divan Orchestra (that's the youth orchestra which Barenboim - ever the tireless humanitarian - put together comprising of young people from Middle East countries, including many Israeli and Palestinians youngsters, just to prove that there is indeed a way to peace and brotherhood through the great and unifying power of music, quite a unique orchestra, and incredibly gifted)
Visits as ever from not only all the top British orchestras, but also some of the world's greatest international orchestras, conductors, and soloists - the Liepzig Gewandhaus Orch, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony, Murray Perahia, Bryn Terfel, Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev, Riccardo Chailly, Pierre Boulez, Katia and Marielle Labèque, and so on.
Highlights for me?...Vienna Philharmonic with Bernard Haitink giving two concerts playing Beethoven, Bruckner, Strauss, Haydn...Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle giving two concerts playing Wagner, Ravel, Debussy, Lutoslawski, and Brahms....Liverpool Philharmonic playing Shostakovich 10th symphony...complete concert performance of Benjamin Britten's opera 'Peter Grimes'...three Vaughan Williams symphonies on one night, on 16th August...and the Elgar 'Coronation Ode' on The First Night. Though much else besides.
In this 'Diamond Jubilee' year, lots of music associated with the monarchy from down the centuries, lots of youth orchestras on show too - of which I am a 'patron' of a couple, so mustn't miss tuning in for those!
Every concert is broadcast 'live' on BBC Radio 3 in the UK, and also online around the world, plus almost half of them are broadcast on BBC TV ,either live or recorded for showing at a later date.
So, as ever, what a summer of great music, and what a unique feast the Proms is for classical music lovers.
Anyway, for anyone interested, here's a complete day-by-day/week-by-week list of all the concerts from the 2012 BBC Proms..
BBC - Proms - Fri 13 July 2012
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