It’s July, which means the summer season of the BBC Proms concerts is upon us. The Proms have evolved in recent years, making an effort to address some of the issues facing the classical music industry: accessibility, location, diversity and innovation. This year there are Proms events across the whole of the UK, from Cornwall to Perth and from Derry to west Wales, and a perceptible effort to include programmes of pop and contemporary music and a diverse array of musicians.
BBC Radio 3 will broadcast live Proms every day, from the Royal Albert Hall and other venues across the country. Many concerts will also be broadcast on TV, including the First Night on BBC2 on Friday 14 July, and the Last Night on BBC1 on Saturday 9 September. So whether you’re an aficionado, ready with promming cushion in hand, or a total newbie, here’s a guide to some of this year’s highlights of the festival, which kicks off on 14 July.
Prom 3: Benjamin Grosvenor piano recital
Sunday 16 July, 11am, Royal Albert Hall
In the first week of the festival is a performance from former BBC Young Musician of the Year finalist Benjamin Grosvenor. The Proms is a great place to see huge symphony orchestras with crashing timpani and schmaltzy violins, but it’s worth catching a peaceful recital too. Grosvenor will play a programme of 19th and early 20th century music – a piano arrangement of Debussy’s “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”, Liszt’s “Réminiscences de Norma” and two works by Ravel – in a tranquil start to the season and to your Sunday. Click here for tickets.
Proms at Sage Gateshead: Self Esteem and the Royal Northern Sinfonia
Friday 21 July, 7.30pm, Sage Gateshead
This year, Sage Gateshead will host a weekend-long Proms festival – the first outside London – and kicking it off is a collaboration between the singer-songwriter Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Since the release of her 2021 album Prioritise Pleasure, Self Esteem has become a huge figure in the pop landscape with her symphonic, catchy songs about emotional intelligence and womanhood. Conducting the Royal Northern is Robert Ames, who has worked with Frank Ocean and Radiohead. Expect big, bold melody and orchestral heft, and one of the defining performances of the festival. Click here for tickets.
Prom 10 & 11: Horrible Histories: ‘Orrible Opera
Saturday 22 July, 2pm and 6pm, Royal Albert Hall
The English National Opera teams up with the Horrible Histories team for a dive into the world of opera, in a prom that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Expect some of the genre’s best loved and most dramatic tunes from divas, soldiers and magical creatures, performed by the ENO chorus and orchestra and explained by the Horrible Histories crew. Only a few tickets remaining, so be quick – or, of course, prom it. Click here for tickets.
Prom 15: Late Night: Moon and Stars
Tuesday 25 July, 10.15pm, Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall’s enormous organ – which has 9,999 pipes and weighs 150 tonnes – will be put to the test in this late-night prom helmed by the TikTok-famous prodigious organist Anna Lapwood, who is aged just 27. She’ll play an eclectic programme featuring music from Hans Zimmer, Debussy and Philip Glass in a concert that will vibrate for miles. Click here for tickets.
Prom 22: Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Prokofiev
Tuesday 1 August, 7pm, Royal Albert Hall
Even if you’re not a fan of classical music, you’ve probably heard of the Kanneh-Masons – Britain’s most musical family, one of whom (Sheku) played the cello at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018. At this prom, eldest sibling and pianist Isata – who recently released her third album – will play Prokofiev’s third piano concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in what will be a sparkling performance. In the second half, the orchestra turn their attention to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5 – a heady, super-romantic piece devastates and thrill in equal measure. Click here for tickets.
Prom 32: Holst’s The Planets
Tuesday 8 August, 7pm, Royal Albert Hall
It’s one of the best-known pieces of music ever, but it’s difficult to go wrong with The Planets. Almost an hour of evocative music that thunders and sparkles will delight most audiences, from curious kids to jaded adults. Jaime Martin conducts the National Orchestra of Wales in a concert that also features Dora Pejačević’s “Overture” and Grace Williams’ “Violin Concerto” – the perfect prom for those who want to dip a toe into classical music. Click here for tickets.
Prom 38: Audience Choice
Sunday 13 August, 2pm, Royal Albert Hall
Take control at this Sunday afternoon matinee, where the Budapest Festival Orchestra will be taking requests. There is a list of more than 200 pieces that the orchestra can play at a moment’s notice – this event will be a celebration not only of the music itself but of the skill of the musicians who can switch tracks with virtuoso skill and wedding DJ spontaneity. Click here for tickets.
Prom 44: Stravinsky’s The Firebird
Friday 18 August, 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are conducted by New Zealander Gemma New, who makes her proms debut, in this interpretation of Stravinsky’s folk ballet The Firebird, which was written in 1910 for the Ballet Russes but has since received even greater recognition as a standalone concert piece. Spicy strings and searing melodies will fill the hall in this riotous second half, after the European premiere of Canadian composer Samy Moussa’s second symphony and Shostakovich’s second piano concerto in the first. Click here for tickets.
Prom 48: Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions with Jules Buckley Orchestra and Cory Henry
Monday 21 August, 8pm, Royal Albert Hall
This prom will celebrate the work of one of the all-time greats, Stevie Wonder, as the British composer-conductor Jules Buckley – known for his work in contemporary jazz and electronic music – takes the reins alongside American keyboardist, and former member of Snarky Puppy, Cory Henry. This will be an unmissable night in which Stevie’s most iconic tunes are taken to new heights with the full power of an orchestra and Henry’s mind-bending musicianship. Click here for tickets.
Prom 56: Rattle conducts Mahler’s Ninth
Sunday 27 August, 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
Sir Simon Rattle is probably the most prominent conductor of our time – and on this Sunday in August, he will conduct his last performance as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, a position he’s held since 2015. It’s fitting that he should do so with Mahler’s Ninth, the composer’s last completed symphony, a colossal work clocking in at nearly an hour and a half. Rattle is known for his interpretations of Mahler’s complex, epic works: this will be a special night, not to be missed. Click here for tickets.
Prom 61: Chineke! performs Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony
Friday 1 September, 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
The Chineke! Orchestra, founded in 2015 by the double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku, is Europe’s first classical ensemble most of whose members are from minority ethnic backgrounds, and since their first performance they’ve been going from strength to strength. In 2022 Chineke! released an album of works by the 19th-century mixed-race British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose work is currently undergoing something of a revival. The orchestra will perform, among works by Haydn, Valerie Coleman and the American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor’s Four Noveletten for String Orchestra and Beethoven’s joyous Fourth Symphony. Click here for tickets.
Proms at Great Yarmouth
Friday 8 September, 6pm, Hippodrome, Great Yarmouth
The BBC Concert Orchestra performs a programme of orchestral favourites in Great Yarmouth at the end of the season, at one of just two permanent circus buildings remaining in the UK. The concert will open with the nation’s favourite piece of classical music, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, and move through pieces by Walton, Khachaturian and Stravinsky. There won’t be any dancing bears or tightropes, but it’s sure to be a fun-filled night. Click here for tickets.
Prom 71: Last Night of the Proms
Saturday 9 September, 7pm, Royal Albert Hall
In a controversial decision, the historic Last Night of the Proms was cancelled last year out of respect to the Queen, who died two days before it was due to take place. The biggest classical music event of the year will feel even bigger this year, then, with last year’s musicians Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Lise Davidson due to appear, and conductor Marin Alsop taking the helm. All the usual classics will be played, from Rule Britannia to Jerusalem – tickets are snapped up long in advance by ballot, but watching from home, dinner on your lap and windows thrown wide, is a great way to enjoy the end of the summer.
