9:29 AM 25th April 2024
BBC Proms Unveils Its 2024 Programme
73 of the 90 Proms will take place at the Royal Albert Hall and 17 at venues across the UK
BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Photo Credit: BBC/Mark Allan
For the first time, a weekend-long Proms festival launches at the newly opened Bristol Beacon, including a BBC Proms debut from the Paraorchestra. The mini festival is the start of a long-term partnership between the BBC Proms, Bristol Beacon and Open Up Music, which will focus on inclusive access to classical music.
There will also be a return to Gateshead for a weekend-long residency at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music and a brand new Proms residency launches in venues in Nottingham. Aberdeen, Belfast and Newport host chamber concerts as the BBC continues its commitment to bringing classical music to audiences across the UK.
This summer’s programme includes an exciting array of family events and concerts for children, with a new Doctor Who Prom and a new CBeebies Prom.
The BBC Proms celebrates choral music and singing, with over 25 choirs appearing throughout the season.
A special three-concert Choral Day reflects a wide range of choral styles, and choral highlights across the summer include performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem and Bach’s St John Passion. In the year that the BBC Singers celebrate their centenary, they will perform in seven Proms including the First Night and the Last Night.
Building on the BBC Proms’ exploration of alternative musical genres, and after the success of the 2023 Northern Soul Prom, this year’s opening weekend will feature the first ever Disco Prom, celebrating disco music f the late 1970s during the era of New York’s Studio 54.
Continuing the Proms’ tradition of collaborating with non-classical artists, Sam Smith and Jordan Rakei make their BBC Proms debuts, and will perform their own music in new orchestral arrangements.
The BBC is also continuing its commitment to championing new music. This year, 24 premieres and BBC commissions / co-commissions will be performed.
Every Prom at the Royal Albert Hall and around the UK will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, with selected Proms also broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. BBC Television and BBC iPlayer will broadcast 24 programmes, including the First Night and Last Night of the Proms, across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four or CBeebies, and all will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for 12 months.
Composer Focuses & Anniversaries
The Proms marks 200 years since the birth of Anton Bruckner by presenting seven of his works, with two of the most celebrated German orchestras bringing Bruckner to the Proms. Psalm 150 will be performed on the First Night of the Proms by soprano Sophie Bevan (19 July), BBC Singers offer three of Bruckner’s most radiant motets, Os justi, Locus iste and Christus factus est which will be followed by Symphony No. 1, under Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic (1 September). Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Symphony No. 4 (5 September).
2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth. Under Ryan Bancroft the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs Pelleas and Melisande, a take on the play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck (22 July). The sumptuous Verklärte Nacht is performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (25 July), and additionally, soloist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the BBC Symphony Orchestra perform Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto which is conducted by Tarmo Peltokoski (9 September).
This year marks 100 years since the death of French composer Gabriel Fauré. An all-French programme is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Stéphane Denève, which will include Fauré’s Requiem and the suite from Pelleas and Melisande (4 September). His beautiful song-cycle will be featured in another all-French programme in Belfast (11 August), and the Last Night of the Proms will feature the ever-popular Pavane (14 September).
Marking 150 years since the birth of English composer Gustav Holst, this season will see four of his works performed: The Evening Watch (21 July), The Cloud Messenger (3 August), Hammersmith (13 August) and Proms audience favourite, The Planets (25 August).
100 years after the death of Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford, this year’s Proms will feature a selection of the Songs of Faith as well as The Fairy Lough (13 August); and the Three Motets along with a selection from the Eight Partsongs (Choral Day – 1, 7 September).
This year marks 200 years since the birth of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. In the Year of Czech music, Má vlast, the majestic sequence of tone-poems about his country’s landscape and history, will be performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko (31 August).
Marking a century since the composer’s death, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor tackles Busoni’s gargantuan and hugely demanding Piano Concerto under Edward Gardner (5 August) and the Comedy Overture performed by the Ulster Orchestra (18 August).