Prom 24: A Hero's Life

Triumphant horns and a irtatious, vivacious solo violin set the tone for Strauss’s vivid autobiographical tone-poem Ein Heldenleben – ‘A Hero’s Life’, outwardly inspired by ‘an ideal of great and manly heroism’. The orchestra is also at the forefront in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, sounding as an equal partner to the soloist – German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, who returns to the Proms under tonight’s debut conductor Otto Tausk – in an intensely personal work that marries a pervasive sense of longing with real passion. In the centenary year of British women gaining the right to vote, Ethel Smyth’s evocative Act 2 Prelude from The Wreckers celebrates a key British composer who, as a su ragette, spent two months in Holloway Prison.

Tickets £7.50 - £41