Proms Saturday Matinees [BBC Proms]

Live from the Cadogan Hall

Presented by Christopher Cook

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, one of Britain's most respected and versatile musicians, celebrates his 75th birthday this year and the first of this season's contemporary music matinees pays tribute to his distinctive creative voice and to two of his favourite composers

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett: Dream Dancing

Henri Dutilleux: Les citations

Maconchy: Romanza

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett: Jazz Calendar

Paul Silverthorne (viola)

London Sinfonietta

Nicholas Collon (conductor).

Christopher Cook presents a concert paying tribute to Richard Rodney Bennett.

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

J S Bach: The Art of Fugue (arr. Mahan Esfahani)

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord/director).

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and the Academy of Ancient Music perform Bach's Art of Fugue

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

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Greek ensemble Armonia Atenea and George Petrou, live at the BBC Proms with music from Baroque operas with appropriately classical storylines.

Handel: Alessandro - overture

Handel: Arianna in Creta - 'Se nel bosco

Hasse: Artemisia - sinfonia

Paisiello: Olimpiade - 'E mi lasci cos쀀?' ...'Ne' giorni tuoi felici

Lully: Phaeton - suite

Vivaldi: Giustino - 'Vedr  con mio diletto

Gluck: Orph退e et Eurydice - Dance of the Blessed Spirits; Dance of the Furies

Gluck: Iphig退nie en Aulide - 'Ma fille, Jupiter

Paisiello: Olimpiade - 'Sciogli, oh Dio! le sue catene

Myrsini Margariti (soprano)

Irini Karaianni (mezzo soprano)

George Petrou (conductor)

The first Greek orchestra ever to appear at the Proms, Armonia Atenea is joined by its Artistic Director George Petrou to present a programme with an appropriately classical flavour. Greek myths form the thread through a Baroque labyrinth of arias and overtures from French, German and Italian operas, including Gluck's Orph退e, Handel's Arianna in Creta and Lully's Phaeton. Furies rage, sons defy their fathers and heroines bewail their fate in what promises to be a concert of high drama.

This concert will be repeated on Wednesday 13th August at 2pm.

Greek ensemble Armonia Atenea and George Petrou perform music from baroque operas.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Corelli: Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 1

Handel: Cantata 'Pensieri notturni di Filli

Valentini: Concerto grosso in A minor for four violins, Op. 7 No. 11

Handel: Cantata 'Tra le fiamme

Corelli: Concerto grosso in F major, Op. 6 No. 12

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

Richard Egarr (conductor)

Before settling in Britain Handel visited to Rome to hear the famous Italian violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli. Unable to write operas - which were temporarily banned in the Papal states - Handel turned his hand to writing sacred music. In this first of five Proms Saturday Matinees, Richard Egarr, Sophie Bevan and the Academy of Ancient Music examine Handel's vivacious Italian cantatas in the context of virtuosic concerti grossi and harpsichord music by Corelli and his compatriots.

The Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Egarr at Cadogan Hall in London.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Tom Service

Pierre Boulez: Notations 2, 11 & 10; La treizi耀me (arr. J Sch怀llhorn) UK premiere

Shiori Usui: Ophiocordyceps unilateralis s.l. (BBC commission - world premiere)

Betsy Jolas: Wanderlied (UK premiere)

Joanna Lee: Hammer of Solitude (BBC commission - world premiere)

Pierre Boulez: D退rive 2

Ulrich Heinen (cello)

Hilary Summers (contralto)

Franck Ollu (conductor)

French conductor Franck Ollu makes his Proms debut, directing the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in the first of two concerts celebrating composer Pierre Boulez's 90th-birthday year. Boulez's own Notations - written while he was still a student - sits alongside his D退rive 2, both works embedded in the 'family tree' of a composer whose works interconnect in ever-evolving ways.

The concert also features Wanderlied for cello and ensemble by Boulez's French-American contemporary Betsy Jolas, as well as music by two young composers new to the Proms: Shiori Usui and Joanna Lee, who writes for contralto Hilary Summers.

This Prom will be repeated on Wednesday 29th July at 2pm.

The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in Boulez, Shiori Usui, Betsy Jolas and Joanna Lee

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

Live from the Cadogan Hall

Presented by Christopher Cook

A concert of contemporary musical encounters. The new piano concerto by Greek-born French composer Georges Aperghis takes its inspiration from the technique of filming dialogue with shot and reverse shot, while Harrison Birtwistle vividly retells the Biblical story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel. Meanwhile, Peter Maxwell Davies reflects on a sonnet by Michelangelo in a work specially composed for the BBC Singers.

David Atherton conducts the London Sinfonietta and BBC Singers with Nicolas Hodges, a pianist who excels in cutting-edge contemporary music. Andrew West and Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts take the challenging parts of Jacob and the Angel.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Il rozzo martello

Georges Aperghis: Champ-Contrechamp (BBC Commission; World Premiere)

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Angel Fighter (UK premiere)

Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (tenor)

Andrew Watts (Counter tenor)

Nicolas Hodges (Piano)

David Atherton (conductor).

BBC Singers and London Sinfonietta in music by Maxwell Davies, Aperghis and Birtwistle.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Sarah Connolly, Britten Sinfonia and Sian Edwards live from Cadogan Hall, London. Featuring music by Britten and his peers, Holst, Lennox Berkeley and Tippett.

Britten: Prelude and Fugue

Holst: St Paul's Suite

Lennox Berkeley: Four Poems of St.Teresa of Avila

Tippett: Fantasia concertante on a Theme of Corelli

Britten: Phaedra

Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Sian Edwards (conductor)

Today's Proms Saturday Matinee features mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly in two great British works for voice and string orchestra - Britten's final vocal work Phaedra, and a rare chance to hear Lennox Berkeley's Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila. Plus the Britten Sinfonia perform some staples of the string repertoire - Holst's St Paul's Suite and Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.

An edited version of this Prom will be broadcast on Wednesday 7th August at 2pm.

The Britten Sinfonia and Sarah Connolly in Britten, Holst, Lennox Berkeley and Tippett.

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

Presented by Clemency Burton Hill

John Storg倀rds and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra live at the BBC Proms with music including Harrison Birtwistle's concerto Endless Parade with trumpeter H倀kan Hardenberger.

CPE Bach: Symphony in B minor, 'Hamburg

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Endless Parade

Honegger: Pastorale d'退t退

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Sinfonia

Sibelius: Rakastava

H倀kan Hardenberger (Trumpet)

John Storg倀rds (Conductor)

John Storg倀rds directs his Lapland Chamber Orchestra - the most northerly professional orchestra in the EU - making its Proms debut.

Contemporary music forms a key role in the ensemble's work, and here the group celebrates the 80th birthdays of two major British composers - Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Swedish trumpeter H倀kan Hardenberger is the soloist in Birtwistle's concerto Endless Parade, whose dark, maze-like landscape is matched by the languorous vistas of Honegger.

The anniversary celebrations of CPE Bach continue with the spiky, brooding textures of his Symphony in B minor.

Prom Saturday Matinee 2 repeat, Wednesday 20th August 1400-1530.

Lapland Chamber Orchestra in CPE Bach, Birtwistle, Honegger, Maxwell Davies and Sibelius.

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

Presented by Christopher Cook

Roger Norrington recreates the distinctive sounds of the orchestra of the French court of Louis XIV, Les 24 Violons du Roy. With suites by the important court musicians of the day - Lully, Marais, Campra and Lalande.

For this special project, the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles has painstakingly recreated these early instruments, and they are played by musicians from the Royal College of Music and the French conservatoires of Paris and Orsay, reviving these unique musical textures as they might have been heard 300 years ago.

Lully: Armide - suite

Desmarets: Circ退 - suite

Marais: Ariane & Bacchus - suite

Campra: Tancr耀de - suite

Lalande: Suite no.5 des Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roi (extracts)

Royal College of Music Baroque Orchestra

Centre de Musique Baroque Versailles

Roger Norrington (conductor)

This concert will be repeated on Sunday 12th August at 2pm.

Roger Norrington conducts conservatoire students in music by Lully, Marais and Lalande.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in C major, RV 177

Vivaldi: Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro, RV 169

Caldara: Quel buon pastor son io (from La morte d'Abel)

Geminiani: Concerto grosso in D minor, Op. 5 No. 12, 'La folia

Vivaldi: Longe mala, umbrae, terrores, RV 629

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D major, RV 208, 'Grosso Mogul

Vivaldi: In furore iustissimae irae, RV 626

Mary-Ellen Nesi (mezzo-soprano)

B'Rock - Baroque Orchestra Ghent

Dmitry Sinkovsky (violin/director)

In the first of a pair of Proms Saturday Matinees dedicated to early music, Belgian Baroque ensemble B'Rock makes its Proms debut with a programme of 18th-century Italian music. Orchestral pieces and solo motets by Vivaldi sit alongside music by Caldara - a famous castrato showpiece - and Geminiani, whose variations on the famous 'La folia' theme rival Scarlatti's, Lully's and Corelli's for rhythmic urgency and virtuosity.

[This Prom will be repeated on Wednesday 12th August at 2pm].

B'Rock, mezzo Mary-Ellen Nesi and Dmitry Sinkovsky perform Vivaldi, Caldara and Geminiani.

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

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

The London Sinfonietta with Tim Gill & Rebecca Bottone live at the BBC Proms, in celebration of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' 80th birthday

Peter Maxwell Davies: Linguae ignis

Peter Maxwell Davies: Revelation and Fall

Peter Maxwell Davies: A Mirror of Whitening Light

Cello: Tim Gill

Soprano: Rebecca Bottone

Sian Edwards (conductor)

Celebrating his 80th birthday this year and the subject of one of this season's Proms Plus Composer Portraits, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the greats of contemporary British music.

This programme chosen by the composer himself explores his wide-ranging sound-worlds, from the sleek and glittering chamber textures of A Mirror of Whitening Light (completed in 1977, shortly after his move to Orkney) to the confrontational music drama of Revelation and Fall.

London Sinfonietta principal cellist Tim Gill is the soloist in the writhing plainchant melodies of Linguae ignis, and Sian Edwards returns to conduct, following her Proms Saturday Matinee appearance last year.

The London Sinfonietta in a concert marking Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's birthday.

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

Presented by Christopher Cook

The Britten Sinfonia is joined by Susan Bickley, Nicolas Hodges Nicholas Daniels for a programme of contemporary British music by Finnissy, Ferneyhough, Birtwistle and Elias.

Michael Finnissy's Piano Concerto No. 2 begins in the lower depths and explodes into transcendentally demanding piano writing before the other players enter. Harrison Birtwistle's Gigue Machine for solo piano, which Nicolas Hodges unveiled in Stuttgart earlier this year, also receives its first UK outing and Brian Elias's meticulously crafted Sophoclean scena, set in the original ancient Greek, gets its world premiere. Its cor anglais soloist, closely identified with the Britten Sinfonia as oboist and conductor, is a recent recipient of The Queen's Medal for Music.

Michael Finnissy: Piano Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere)

Brian Ferneyhough: Prometheus

Harrison Birtwistle: Gigue Machine (UK premiere)

Brian Elias: Electra Mourns (World premiere)

Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano)

Nicholas Daniels (cor anglais)

Nicolas Hodges (piano)

Clark Rundell (conductor).

The Britten Sinfonia plays music by Finnissy, Ferneyhough, Birtwistle and Elias.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall

Presented by Christopher Cook

Medieval and modern, mystical and material all collide in this Prom which has as its focus songs by the 11th century German Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, performed both in their original versions and as re-imagined in a brand new work by Stevie Wishart. Her BBC commission takes Hildegard's words to create 'a sonic tapestry of frayed threads from hundreds of years ago, woven into a new pattern'.

Completing the programme, two modern works which also have their roots in the medieval world - Britten's cycle wittily juxtaposes sacred and secular lyrics and is one of his last works, while Harrison Birtwistle's setting takes words from a source that was to become a well-spring of inspiration in his later career - the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - and is one of his earliest published pieces

Hildegard of Bingen: Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum - selection

Britten: Sacred and Profane

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Narration: A Description of the Passing of a Year

Stevie Wishart: Out of This World (BBC Commission; world premiere)

BBC Singers

Sinfonye

Stevie Wishart (director)

Robert Hollingworth (conductor).

BBC Singers and Sinfonye in music by Hildegard of Bingen, Britten, Birtwistle and Wishart.

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

Presented by Christopher Cook

CPE Bach: Symphony in B minor, Wq 182/5 'Hamburg

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D major, RV 234 'L'inquietudine

Telemann: Burlesque de Quixotte, TWV55:G10 (excerpts)

JS Bach: Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042

JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord / director)

Apollo's Fire - otherwise known as the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra - has been a lively force in early music for over 20 years. Now, under director Jeanette Sorrell, this quirky, energetic band makes its BBC Proms debut in the second of this season's early music Proms Saturday Matinees. The ensemble is joined by violinist Alina Ibragimova, soloist in much-loved concertos by Bach and Vivaldi. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, with its brilliant writing for harpsichord and its bittersweet slow movement, and music from Telemann's vividly colourful suite following the adventures of Cervantes's knight-errant Don Quixote, complete the mix.

This Prom will be repeated Wednesday 19th August at 2pm.

Apollo's Fire under Jeannette Sorrell in music by CPE Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Britten: Young Apollo

Lennox Berkeley: Serenade For Strings

Shostakovich: Concerto For Piano, Trumpet and Strings (Piano Concerto No. 1)

Priaulx Rainier: Movement For Strings (World Premiere)

Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

Alison Balsom (trumpet)

Barry Douglas (piano/director)

Pianist Barry Douglas directs Camerata Ireland in its Proms debut with a programme continuing the season's focus on the music of Benjamin Britten and his contemporaries. Withdrawn from performance for 40 years after its 1939 premiere, Britten's Young Apollo opens a sequence of works of brittle, edgy beauty, including the world premiere of Priaulx Rainier's 1951 Movement for strings. Lennox Berkeley's Serenade for strings and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge frame a performance of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.1, whose witty trumpet part is played by Alison Balsom.

An edited version of this Prom will be broadcast on Wednesday 14th August at 2pm.

Camerata Ireland in music by Britten and his contemporaries. With Britten's Young Apollo.

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

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

In celebration of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's 80th birthday, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Oliver Knussen perform some of his early works, live at the BBC Proms

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Verses for Ensembles

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Dinah and Nick's Love Song

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Meridian

Hilary Summers (mezzo-soprano)

Exaudi

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

Along with fellow Lancastrian composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir Harrison Birtwistle celebrates his 80th birthday this year. The Proms marks the occasion with a concert from one of the UK's leading new music ensembles, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

The group's relationship with Birtwistle's music is a long one, and here it performs three of the composer's classic early works. Each explores the spatial dramatisation of music, playing aural games with the audience and exposing them to intriguing and unfamiliar textures, while never neglecting the ever-unfolding melody that is at the core of all Birtwistle's music.

contemporarycollection

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under Oliver Knussen in music by Harrison Birtwistle.

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

Presented by Christopher Cook.

Nicholas Collon conducts the BCMG and London Sinfonietta Voices in music by Goehr and Knussen, and a colourful new piece by Simon Bainbridge: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Linked Ophelia pieces by Oliver Knussen, 60 this year, follow Alexander Goehr's reflection on Bach's compositional procedures, which Knussen himself premiered, wearing his conductor's hat.

Also born in 1952, Simon Bainbridge has developed a darker, less mercurial kind of idiom. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's extraordinary triptych, his eagerly awaited new work is a labyrinthine journey featuring mezzo-soprano and counter-tenor as well as a narrator.

Alexander Goehr: ... a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985)...

Oliver Knussen: Ophelia Dances

Oliver Knussen: Ophelia's Last Dance

Simon Bainbridge: The Garden of Earthly Delights (BBC commission: world premiere)

Huw Watkins (piano)

Lucy Schaufer (mezzo-soprano)

Andrew Watts (counter-tenor)

Samuel West (narrator)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Nicholas Collon (Conductor).

BCMG and London Sinfonietta Voices/Nicholas Collon in Goehr, Knussen and Bainbridge.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Christopher Cook

Strings and voices are centre-stage in this concert - with a solo cello taking the part of protagonists both human and divine. In Tavener's 'Popule meus', the cello represents the all-merciful God in a piece which explores modern man's rejection of the Deity. In Gubaidulina's 'Canticle of the Sun', setting the famous hymn to creation by St Francis of Assisi, the cello becomes the saint himself, glorying in the world around him, in life and even death.

Added to this mix, the ever life-enhancing music of Sir Michael Tippett - a suite for strings, together with a part-song setting Gerard Manley Hopkins' celebration of a bird in flight, and a motet which commemorates another formed of winged creature - the heavenly host of angels.

Tippett: The Windhover

Tippett: Plebs angelica

Sir John Tavener: Popule meus (UK Premiere)

Tippett: Little Music for Strings

Sofia Gubaidulina: The Canticle of the Sun

Natalie Clein (cello)

BBC Singers

Britten Sinfonia

David Hill (conductor).

Natalie Clein (cello), BBC Singers, Britten Sinfonia in Tippett, Tavener and Gubaidulina.

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

The English Chamber Orchestra performs two works written for the tenor Peter Pears, including Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. Plus a set of variations by multiple composers which marked the Queen's coronation in 1953.

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

Purcell, arr. Britten: Chacony

Lutoslawski: Paroles tiss退es

Berkeley, Britten, Oldham, Searle, Tippett & Walton: Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (Sellinger's Round)

Tansy Davies & John Woolrich: Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (Sellinger's Round) - new variations (BBC commission: world premiere)

Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings

Ben Johnson (tenor)

Richard Watkins (horn)

Paul Watkins (conductor)

To mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten, the English Chamber Orchestra focus on his evocative Serenade, together with one of his Purcell arrangments. The other two works in the programme are a set of songs which Lutoslawski composed for Peter Pears, and a set of Variations written collectively for the 1953 coronation. Britten contributed one variation, and the other composers were Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Oldham, Humphrey Searle, Michael Tippett and William Walton. For this performance there are two special new additions to the set, by Tansy Davies and John Woolrich.

This concert will be repeated on Wednesday 28th August at 2pm.

The English Chamber Orchestra under Paul Watkins in works including Britten: Serenade.

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

Live from Cadogan Hall, London

Presented by Tom Service

Pierre Boulez: M退moriale ('... explosante-fixe ...' Originel)

Helen Grime: A Cold Spring

Pierre Boulez: Domaines

Christian Mason: Open to Infinity: a Grain of Sand (BBC co-commission: UK premiere)

Pierre Boulez: ɀclat/Multiples

Michael Cox (flute)

Mark van de Wiel (clarinet)

Thierry Fischer conductor

Pierre Boulez's M退moriale puts the flute in the spotlight, showcasing minutiae of texture and articulation, while in Domaines it's a solo clarinet that gives out a sustained soliloquy. The two contrasting parts of ɀclat/Multiples (1970) are theoretically part of a larger work, as yet unfinished by the composer. They make for a striking contrast: the brilliant, glittering colours of ɀclat set against the nervy perpetual motion of Multiples.

This Prom will be repeated on Wednesday 2nd September at 2pm.

The London Sinfonietta under Thierry Fischer plays Boulez, Helen Grime and Christian Mason

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

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill

String music by Britten, Tippet and Walton performed by the Camerata Nordica and Terje Tønnesen live at the BBC Proms.

Britten: Simple Symphony

Tippett: Little Music for strings

Britten: Elegy for strings (world premiere)

Britten: Lachrymae

Walton: Sonata for strings

Catherine Bullock (viola)

Terje Tønnesen (violin/director)

The Proms focus on Britten and contemporaries continues with the world premiere of his Elegy for strings. Written six years before the Simple Symphony, this early miniature is contrasted with works by Britten's contemporaries Tippett and Walton. Violinist Terje Tønnesen directs the Swedish ensemble Camerata Nordica in their Proms debut. They are joined by viola player Catherine Bullock who is the soloist in Britten's Lachrymae.

An edited version of the Prom will be broadcast on Wednesday 4th September at 2pm.

The Camerata Nordica under Terje Tonnesen in string works by Britten, Tippett and Walton.

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