BBC Proms [2010]

Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces the winning entries from the competition for young composers.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny.

Mahler's spectacular 'Symphony of a Thousand' launches the 2010 BBC Proms. 'Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.' So Mahler described his Eighth Symphony, which tonight 100 years after its premiere and 150 years after the composer's birth, will raise the roof of the Royal Albert Hall.

Setting a hymn to the divine creative spirit alongside words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust the symphony expresses the idea of redemption through the power of love. To do this Mahler uses huge forces: eight vocal soloists, a large orchestra and massed adult and children's choirs, tonight including choristers from three of London's great cathedrals, and choirs from Crouch End to Sydney including the BBC's own Symphony Chorus.

It's a celebratory start to two months of music making at the world's greatest music festival and a tribute to the Proms founder and conductor - Sir Henry Wood - who gave the work its UK premiere 80 years ago.

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major, 'Symphony of a Thousand

Mardi Byers (soprano)

Twyla Robinson (soprano)

Malin Christensson (soprano)

Stephanie Blythe (mezzo-soprano)

Kelley O'Connor (mezzo-soprano)

Stefan Vinke (tenor)

Hanno Müller-Brachmann (baritone)

Tomasz Konieczny (bass)

Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral

Choristers of Westminster Abbey

Choristers of Westminster Cathedral

BBC Symphony Chorus

Crouch End Festival Chorus

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jirí Belohlávek (conductor)

This Prom will be repeated on Monday 19th July at 2pm.

Mahler's Eighth Symphony launches the 2010 Proms Season from the Royal Albert Hall.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

For such a huge venue - it holds almost six thousand people - the Royal Albert Hall can be amazingly intimate when the focus is on a single performer. What better way for the Proms to celebrate the 200th birthday this year of Fr退d退ric Chopin than another chance to hear a late-night performance of his Nocturnes for solo piano, played in July by acclaimed Portuguese pianist Maria Jo　o Pires.

Chopin: Nocturnes, op 9, nos. 1, 2 and 3

op 15, nos. 1, 2 and 3

op 27, nos. 1 and 2

op 62, nos. 1 and 2

op 72, no 1

Lento con gran espressione, KK IVa No.16

Maria Jo　o Pires (piano).

The perfect late-night Prom: Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires plays Chopin's Nocturnes.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Another chance to hear Douglas Boyd directing members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in two classics for wind ensemble.

Dvorကk: Serenade in D minor for winds, cello and double bass, Op. 44

Mozart: Serenade in B flat, K361 'Gran Partita

Douglas Boyd (conductor).

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra in two classics for wind ensemble by Dvorak and Mozart.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Louise Fryer.

Wayne Marshall returns to the Proms with a programme of Wagner, whose operatic grandeur translates very well to the king of instruments, particularly when played on the Royal Albert Hall's magnificent organ. In previous proms performances Marshall has thrilled audiences with his flamboyant improvisation skills, and these can be heard again in an improvisation on themes from Tristan and Isolde.

Wagner arr. Lemare: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Overture

Wagner arr. Lemare: Tannhauser Overture

Improvisation on themes from Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde

Wagner arr. Lemare: The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure

Wayne Marshall, organ.

Wayne Marshall plays Wagner on the organ of the Royal Albert Hall, London.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Donald Macleod

Chief conductor Donald Runnicles teams up once again at the Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish mezzo Karen Cargill to perform Mahler's massive Third Symphony. The composer himself wrote 'My symphony will be something such as the world has not had before! The whole of Nature finds a voice.' The Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus are joined by the ladies of the Edinburgh Festival chorus to create the sound world of bells and an angelic choir before the symphony reaches its radiant conclusion.

Mahler: Symphony No.3 in D minor

Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano

Edinburgh Festival Chorus (women's voices)

Donald Runnicles, conductor.

The BBC SSO and Donald Runnicles perform Mahler's expansive Third Symphony.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Presented by John Shea

Another chance to hear this Late Night Prom which pairs music by Igor Stravinsky with one of the composers he most admired - J S Bach. At the heart of the concert the two composers overlap in Stravinsky's orchestral arrangement of one of the Bach's masterpieces: the great Canonic Variations on 'Vom Himmel Hoch', in which he subjects a Lutheran Christmas hymn to a staggering array of blindingly clever techniques - but all-the-while producing music so charming and fluent that the unsuspecting listener would never know what was going on below the surface.

The concert ends with a work by Stravinsky which, like Bach's, combines austerity with a deeply-felt spirituality: Threni - setting words from the Biblical Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Bach: Chorale 'Ach mein herzliebes Jesulein

Bach: Canonic Variations on 'Von Himmel hoch' BWV769

Bach arr. Stravinsky: Chorale Variations on 'Von Himmel hoch' BWV 769

Stravinsky: Threni

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano

Hilary Summers, mezzo-soprano

Alan Oke, tenor

Andrew Kennedy, tenor

David Wilson-Johnson, baritone

Sir John Tomlinson, bass

Daniel Hyde, organ

BBC Singers

London Sinfonietta

David Atherton, conductor.

The BBC Singers and the London Sinfonietta perform music by Stravinsky and Bach.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Ilan Volkov, a great champion of contemporary music, conducts music by three generations of British composers alongside a new work by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, whose Wald (Forest) takes its cue from a theme on the composer's own instrument, the horn.

Oliver Knussen: Two Organa

Hans Abrahamsen: Wald (BBC co-commission with Asko SchÀ?¶nberg: UK premiere)

Luke Bedford: Or voit tout en aventure

George Benjamin: Three Inventions

Claire Booth, soprano

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Ilan Volkov, conductor.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Ilan Volkov in works by Beford, Knussen, Abrahamsen.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Choral music with a French flavour in this Prom matinee with the BBC Symphony Chorus conducted by its Director, Stephen Jackson.

Bookends to the programme are two masterworks from the 20th century a cappella choral repertoire. Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique de Cantiques, composed in 1953, is a beautifully-shaped and lusciously-scored setting of words from the Biblical Song of Songs, in which the eroticism of the ancient texts is portrayed in music of dreamy sensuality. Poulenc's Figure Humaine confronts the dark reality of life in Occupied France and is one of the most thrilling moments in the entire choral repertoire.

In between, two works for brass by Toru Takemitsu - music of harmonic elegance and dream-like stillness, and a new piece by Stephen Montague, exploring the joys of language and human utterance.

Daniel-Lesur: Le cantique des cantiques

Takemitsu: Garden Rain*

Stephen Montague: Wilful Chants (BBC commission: world premiere)

Takemitsu: Signals from Heaven*

Poulenc: Figure humaine

Soloists from Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir

London Brass

O Duo

Stephen Jackson (conductor)

*Andrew Crowley (conductor)

EXTRA NOTES:

Poulenc's Figure Humaine confronts the dark reality of life in Occupied France and Composed to be performed on the long-awaited day of liberation, Poulenc's cantata - setting words by poet-turned-Resistance-member Paul Eluard - is a paean to his homeland, culminating in a hymn to liberty which is one of the most thrilling moments in the entire choral repertoire.

Toru Takemitsu - though Japanese - counted Claude Debussy as a major influence and his music, like much of Debussy's, has a harmonic elegance and dream-like stillness. In contrast, Stephen Montague's new piece - a BBC commission here receiving its first performance - is an energetic exploration of the joys of language and human utterance, a virtuoso tapestry of many different world languages and even some that don't exist!

BBC Symphony Chorus in Daniel-Lesur, Poulenc, Takemitsu and Stephen Montague.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Lucy Duran.

Two generations interpreting Iraqi music for a contemporary audience: Pioneering Iraqi singer and guitarist Ilham Al Madfai and his group play his own songs and traditional Iraqi favourites, and are joined by Ilham's student, oud player Khyam Allami. Damascus-born and London-raised, Khyam is the first student of Radio 3's World Routes Academy.

The music promises to be rhythmically powerful, as the band includes not only a Western-style bass guitar and drum kit rhythm section, but also two additional percussionists. Traditional Iraqi instruments the joza (spike fiddle) and qanun (zither) are also included in the line-up.

Ilham Al Madfai (guitar/vocals)

Khyam Allami (oud)

Saro Kevorkian (drums)

Faisal Ghazi; Walid Kamel (oriental percussion)

Andrea Piccioni (percussion)

Omar Bashir (oud)

Azad Omar Mohammed (ney)

Jamil Al Asadi (qanoon)

Luca Scansani (electric bass)

EXTRA NOTES:

Ilham Al-Madfai was once known as the Beatle of Baghdad. He formed his first band in the 1960s, the first band in Iraq that used 'modern' instruments in playing Arabic music. His family was against his involvement in music, and sent him to London to study architecture. But he continued to perform with a group, particularly at Cafe Baghdad in London. Leading musicians attended his gigs including Paul McCartney, Donovan and Georgie Fame.

Ilham returned to Iraq to develop his musical career. He introduced Spanish guitar rhythms from Andalusia to Iraqi folk song, appealing to a newer, younger audience. He reached a peak in popularity during the 70s, becoming Iraq's most popular musician of the time.

Iraqi singer/guitarist Ilham Al Madfai and oud player Khyam Allami play Iraqi favourites.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The thoughtful, dignified, spacious music of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has become one of the most distinctive sounds in contemporary music, and this evening's Late Night Prom presents a performance of a choral work which summarises his unassuming and deceptively simple style - a setting of the Christian Passion narrative from the Gospel according to St John.

Arvo Pärt : St John Passion

Andrew Kennedy (tenor - Pilate)

Brindley Sherratt (baritone - Jesus)

Iain Farrington (organ)

Endymion

BBC Singers

David Hill (conductor)

Extra notes:

Pärt's St John Passion is not a work in which the harrowing events of Christ's arrest, trial, crucifixion and death are used as the vehicle for large-scale, overly dramatic musical gestures. Rather, the piece makes its impact through quiet understatement and ritualised intensity - the music only occasionally raising its voice. In our noisy, over-emotionalised, hyper-sensitive contemporary world Pärt's piece takes us to a place of deep contemplation and solemn ceremony - sounding both fresh and modern, and - at the same time - as if it springs from some great well of primeval music. An unforgettable late-night listen, which will turn the great spaces of the Albert Hall into something like an ancient Romanesque basilica...

David Hill conducts the BBC Singers and soloists in Arvo Part's St John Passion.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Kim Criswell heads the cast marking the 50th anniversary of the death of American lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. With the John Wilson Orchestra under John Wilson they perform a glorious medley of songs from the evergreen musicals Hammerstein wrote with composer Richard Rodgers, the Waltz king of the musical. From the ground-breaking scores of Oklahoma! and the dark-themed Carousel, to the family favourites - The King and I and The Sound of Music. Musicals expert John Wilson conducts the lushly-scored movie orchestrations.

Featuring excerpts from Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song and

Kim Criswell, Sierra Bogess, Julian Ovenden,

Anna-Jane Casey and Rod Gilfry, vocalists

Maida Vale Singers

John Wilson, conductor.

John Wilson conducts his orchestra in a celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Suzy Klein

Jazz singer, songwriter and pianist Jamie Cullum is joined by the Heritage Orchestra to perform a set of classic number is this Late Night Prom. Cullum has spent the last 10 years forging his own unique brand of music, influenced by pop, rock and electronica, but always with jazz at its core. Tonight he is joined by the Heritage Orchestra - a 40-piece line-up originally formed to play at London's Cargo club, and always found at the cutting edge of boundary-crossing musical projects.

Singer, songwriter and pianist Jamie Cullum reworks classic numbers in his own jazz style.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Tom Service

The Early Opera Company and its conductor Christian Curnyn feature three composers born in 1710 who straddled the divide between the baroque and classical styles. Thomas Arne was the leading figure in London in his day, and his symphonies show off the latest trends in taste and refinement. JS Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, showed great promise, but had a disappointingly uneven career, although his music forged a new path. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, a work of great lyrical beauty, is still as popular today as it was in the composer's tragically short lifetime.

W. F. Bach: Sinfonia in D minor

Arne: Symphony No. 4 in C minor

Pergolesi: Stabat mater

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

Anna Stephany, mezzo-soprano

Christian Curnyn, conductor.

The Early Opera Company performs works by Arne, WF Bach and Pergolesi.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Louise Fryer

The musicians of Ensemble Matheus from Brittany in the far west of France have been making a name for themselves in recent years with their thrilling performances of Baroque music. Tonight they make their Proms debut with their founder-director Jean-Christophe Spinosi in music from the heart of their repertory, by Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi.

Celebrated French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux join the group for arias and duets by Handel and one of his greatest operatic rivals in early eighteenth-century London, Nicola Porpora - including music he wrote for the famous castrato Farinelli.

Handel: Julius Caesar - Empiro dir  tu sei

Vivaldi: La fida ninfa - 'Aure lievi, che spirate

Vivaldi: Orlando furioso - 'Sol da te, mio dolce amore' & 'Sorge l'irato nembo

Telemann: Concerto in E minor for recorder, flute and strings

Porpora: Polifemo - 'Alto Giove

Vivaldi: Orlando furioso - 'Ah sleale...Io ti getto elmo

Vivaldi: Concerto for two violins in D major, RV 513

Vivaldi: La fida ninfa - 'Dimmi pastore

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto)

Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor)

Laurence Paugam (violin)

Alexis Kossenko (recorder)

Jean-Marc Goujon (flute)

Jean-Christophe Spinosi (violin/director).

Ensemble Matheus and singers in baroque works by Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora, Telemann.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Presented by Catherine Bott

Another chance to hear the quirky music of the Penguin Caf退.

I think our recordings have been put in the classical, folk, pop, rock, avantgarde, chillout, world and dance sections of record shop,' says Arthur Jeffes, leader of Penguin Caf退, the 21st-century reincarnation of the Penguin Caf退 Orchestra made famous by his father Simon Jeffes.

In this Late Night Prom from September the Penguin Caf退's wide-ranging lineup: ukulele, dulcitone, penny whistles and guitars alongside violin, cello and piano, supplemented by the Northumbrian smallpipes - played by their star champion Kathryn Tickell.

Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes)

The Penguin Cafe makes its Proms debut, playing with Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in Monteverdi's resplendent Vespers. Published 400 years ago in 1610, Monteverdi's choral masterpiece is a glorious summation of the different styles of Venetian church music of the 1600s. Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir make the most of the vast spaces of the Royal Albert Hall to perform the music with which they made their Proms debut in 1968.

The London Oratory Junior Choir & The Schola Cantorum of The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (conductor).

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner in Monteverdi: Vespers.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

The mighty Father Willis organ of the Albert Hall is unleashed by David Briggs, Organist Emeritus at Gloucester Cathedral, for the third of today's Bach Proms. The programme starts with two contrasting original works for the instrument - a small-scale chorale prelude based on the Advent hymn 'Sleepers Wake', preceded by the great Passacaglia in C minor: twenty-one variations and a fugue founded on a repeated bass line. Three pieces demonstrate the organ's traditional role playing transcriptions of orchestral works - a role extending back to Bach's own day - including the cantata movement 'Sheep may safely graze', and David Briggs's own arrangement of the best known of Bach's orchestral suites, including the popular 'Air on the G String'.

Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Bach: Chorale Prelude 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme', BWV 645

Bach, arr. Stainton B Taylor: Aria 'Schafe können sicher weiden', BWV 208

Bach, arr. Virgil Fox:'Komm, süsser Tod', BWV 478

Bach, arr. David Briggs:Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068

David Briggs (organ).

David Briggs gives a Bach organ recital, featuring original works and arrangements.

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.