Due to the difficulty of hosting live events, the BBC Proms schedule will look different this year. Details are listed below.

BBC World Service

Two concerts from What’s On

From September 5th – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5
BBC Broadcast times: Saturday, September 5, 2-3 p.m. ET, repeat on Sunday, September 6, 7-8 a.m. ET
Air window: Stations may air the program for 1 week after broadcast
Details: London Symphony Orchestra – Simon Rattle, conductor

In the first of this year’s two visits to the Proms on the BBC World Service, the London Symphony Orchestra under their Music Director Sir Simon Rattle perform the most popular among Ralph Vaughan Williams’s nine symphonies, the Fifth. The Symphony was premiered in 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, and its serene beauty was instantly appreciated as an antidote to the tragedies of war. The critic Neville Cardus called it “The most benedictory and consoling music of our time.” Andrew McGregor introduces the concert. You can learn more about this program on the Proms website.

From September 12th – Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
BBC Broadcast times: Saturday, September 12, 2-3 p.m. ET, repeat on Sunday, September 13, 7-8 a.m. ET
Air window: Stations may air the program for 1 week after broadcast
Details:
• Dmitry Shostakovich: Concerto for piano, trumpet and strings
• Benjamin Grosvenor, piano
• Jason Evans, trumpet
• Philharmonia Orchestra
• Esa – Pekka Salonen, conductor

In the second visit to this year’s Proms on the BBC World Service, the Philharmonia Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen perform two very different 20th century works. Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin is a double homage: to the splendor of French 18th-century music and to Ravel’s friends and colleagues who perished in the First World War. Ravel was profoundly affected by his experiences as a lorry driver at the front and yet the music he wrote for the Tombeau is calm and reflective rather than tragic. The Shostakovich Concerto presents quite a contrast: written as a virtuoso vehicle for the composer himself who in his youth was also an outstanding pianist, it is an exuberant melange of jaunty tunes and distorted quotes from other composers’ works and popular songs. Andrew McGregor introduces the concert. You can learn more about this program on the Proms website.

SymphonyCast

Three concerts from the updated program listings

September 14, 2020 – First Night of the 2020 BBC Proms
• BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers
• Sakari Oramo, conductor
• Sofi Jeannin, chorus director
HANNAH KENDALL: Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama (World Premiere)
WHITACRE: Sleep
COPLAND: Quiet City
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3
Link to program on Proms website

September 21, 2020 – From the 2020 BBC Proms
• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
• Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
• Stephen Hough, pianoBEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19
JAY CAPPERAULD: Circadian Refrains (172 Days Until Dawn) (BBC Commission, World Premiere)
STRAUSS: Metamorphosen
Link to program on Proms website

September 28, 2020 – Last Night of the 2020 BBC Proms
• BBC Symphony Orchestra
• Dalla Stasevska, conductor
• Golda Schultz, soprano
PROGRAM TBA – Link to program on Proms website.