10 performances not to miss at the 2017 Proms
There are highlights every night at the BBC Proms but these performances should be particularly special – by Ysenda Maxwell-Graham and Molly Biddell.
The 2017 Proms begin on July 14 and run until September 9 – see the full daily calendar here.
You can watch or listen on BBC Two and BBC Radio, and tickets are still available for many performances from the official website.
July 31 – Monteverdi Vespers with French Baroque ensemble Pygmalion
Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers is a choral masterpiece of unprecedented musical scope and audacious beauty. Director Raphaël Pichon marks the composer’s 450th anniversary in a performance by dynamic French ensemble Pygmalion in its Proms debut.
August 2 – Schütz and Bach motets and cantatas with John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Enjoy distinct performances from Germany’s two most influential composers. Bach’s austere and beautiful Lutheran cantatas stand in contrast to the lively rhythms and rich textures of Schütz’s music.
August 3 – Paavo Järvi conducting the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante and Brahms’s 2nd Symphony
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonic Bremen returns to the Proms for the first time since 2010, performing Brahms’s sunny Second Symphony under Paavo Järvi. Järvi was born in 1962 in Estonia, and is currently the chief conductor of NHKSO symphony orchestra. Vilde Frang and Lawrence Power join as soloists for Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante.
August 11 – Oklahoma! with the John Wilson Orchestra
Bursting not just with tunes but emotions, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! brought new dramatic depth to the Broadway musical. British conductor, arranger and musicologist John Wilson and his orchestra bring their signature energy and swagger to this much-loved classic.
August 13 (late-night) – Rachmaninov Vespers with the Latvian Radio Choir
The Latvian Radio Choir, one of the top professional chamber choirs in Europe, performs a work hailed as ‘the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church’. Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil is one of the loveliest works of any faith – a profoundly moving statement of belief.
August 20 – Bach’s St John Passion with the Dunedin Consort
Bach specialist John Butt and his award-winning Dunedin Consort, a Baroque ensemble based in Edinburgh, make their Proms debut with a performance of Bach’s St John Passion, a work of almost operatic immediacy.
August 23 – ‘Beyond the Score’, the history of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, followed by a performance
British Presenter Gerard McBurney takes you ‘Beyond the Score®’ in a multimedia concert that explores the history of Dvořák’s enduringly popular ‘New World’ Symphony. Afterwards, Sir Mark Elder and the Halle give a complete performance of the work.
September 3 – Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Violin Concerto and 5th Symphony with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, a German orchestra founded in 1987, bring authentic colour to some of Mendelssohn’s best-loved works.
September 7 (late-night) – Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, played by András Schiff
The two volumes of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier together represent a wealth of musical invention, ingenuity and delight. Eminent Bach-specialist and Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, Sir András Schiff, performs Book I – concluding the cycle next year with Book 2.
September 8 – Brahms’s St Anthony Chorale Variations, Mozart Piano Concerto No 14 and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic
American classical pianist Emanuel Ax joins the Vienna Philharmonic for its second Prom this season, under Michael Tilson Thomas. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony sits alongside Brahms’s ‘Haydn’ Variations and the quasi-operatic lyricism of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14.