BBC Proms from American Public Media

"The Proms started off with a very evangelical aim of trying to bring people to music and over the last 100 years Britain has become a much more musical culture and people are actively interested in classical music but there's always a need for the new generation to come to classical music for the first time and for the enthusiasts that exist to have their horizons broadened by a whole range of new and interesting work."
—Nicholas Kenyon, controller of The BBC Proms.
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July 18, 2007
London Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre National de France with Kurt Masur conducting perform Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E.

July 26, 2007
BBC Symphony Orchestra along with Daniel Hope, violin; Philip Dukes, viola; and Christian Poltéra, cello perform Delius' A Song of Summer, Tippett's Triple Concerto and Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5.

July 30, 2007
BBC Symphony Orchestra with pianist Yefim Bronfman perform Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin, Salonen's Piano Concerto and Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet Excerpts. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts.

August 6, 2007
BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven's Symphony #8 in F, Berg's Seven Early Songs and Schumann's Symphony No. 2. Gianandrea Noseda conducts with Renée Fleming, soprano.

August 16, 2007
BBC Symphony Orchestra plays Halvorsen's Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak (Grieg, orch.), Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor and Walton's Symphony No. 1. Andrew Litton conducts with Boris Berezovsky, piano.

Saturday, September 8, 2007: Last Night of the Proms
The 2007 BBC Proms ends in this serious/silly extravaganza that nearly every Briton stops and listens to or watches live on television. You haven't lived until you've heard Last Night!

The audience at the Last Night of the Proms, 2003

Britishness is a political idea...an identity which was formed when England and Scotland...Wales doesn't count for the purposes of this argument because they've really not got a sufficiently defined sense of their own identity...I'm waiting therefore to be thumped by any Welshman that may be listening...
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The Proms is 113 years old and still remains true to its original aim: to present the widest possible range of music, performed to the highest standards, to large audiences.
Read more about the history of this event

Get a feel for the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms season with 360° virtual tours

Listen to BBC Proms concerts on the Web as they happen

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