With the UK enjoying a rare burst of actual summer, the BBC Proms are soon here again. A visit to Europe’s biggest and most democratic classical music festival is a highlight of any summer trip to London, with Day Promming tickets only £8. For those who are willing and able, standing in the arena still provides the best sound in the Royal Albert Hall, and an unforgettable experience, up close with many of the finest musicians the UK and Europe has to offer.
Promming can be a little strenuous, but its accessibility has been improved in recent years. It’s now not necessary to queue round the block in Kensington Gore – instead, Day Promming tickets can be booked on the morning of the concert (or sometimes the day before), and seating is available for prommers who need it. (And naturally, seats and boxes are available elsewhere in the Royal Albert Hall.)
The 2025 Proms season extends for eight and half weeks from 18th July to 13th September, and this preview discusses the first half, until mid August. Watch for our second preview coming soon.
The season is as big as ever, this year offering a well-leavened mix of populism, public-spiritedness, family fare and serious business. The First Night is a classic example: Vaughan Williams’ rare oratorio Sancta Civitas, Mendelssohn’s well-loved ear-worm Fingal’s Cave, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili and a new commission The Elements from Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen.
Ravel is a big feature this year, given his 150th anniversary. Nicholas McCarthy makes his Proms debut in Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with the Bournemouth Symphony, a piece full of darkness and pathos. On 23rd July, the Orchestre National de France makes an appearance to perform Ravel’s orchestral showstoppers Rapsodie espagnole and La Valse, alongside French rarities by Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Charlotte Sohy.
Indeed, 23rd July is billed as “French Night”, as foremost Paris-based contemporary music group Ensemble intercontemporain appears for the late concert to perform Boulez and Berio, composers whose anniversaries are also celebrated this year. Berio’s collagic Recital I for Cathy, which includes a slew of quotations (including Ravel, Mahler and many others) is a rare treat for Lied-spotters. Later on 4th August, one of Boulez’s major orchestral works, Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, is adroitly combined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Mahler’s Song of Lamentation, Mahler being a composer of huge importance to Boulez and Berio alike.
As in previous years, the Proms is not limited to the UK capital, with concerts in Gateshead, Sunderland, Belfast, Bristol and Bradford (this year’s UK City of Culture). The Gateshead concerts at the Glasshouse look particularly worth catching: one such is on 27th July, which includes Boulez’s magnum opus Le Marteau sans maître (The Hammer Without a Master), the composer’s setting of surrealist poems by René Char – diametrically juxtaposed with Cassandra Miller’s hypnotic Bel Canto, and a new commission from leading US composer Tyshawn Sorey.
Another new commission this year is from young UK composer Tom Coult, known to Proms audiences from commissions in the past, whose Monologues for the Curious on 21st July features Allan Clayton alongside the BBC Philharmonic. Other noted soloists appearing in the first half of the season include Augustin Hadelich, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on 24th July, and Alexandre Kantorow, performing Saint-Saëns’ last Piano Concerto (the Fifth).
Notable guest conductors also make an appearance: on 6th August Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra perform the greatest Hungarian opera, Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. And Tadaaki Otaka conducts great Polish composer Lutosławski’s masterful Concerto for Orchestra on 30th July – an excellent recommendation for anyone looking for a place to start exploring 20th-century classical music.
Another essential piece of 20th-century music is Berio’s Sinfonia, performed by Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony on 1st August, with the BBC Singers. Berio’s music inescapably captures in the spirit and disorder of 1968, with its orchestral expansion of O King, the composer’s tribute to Martin Luther King, together with its Beckettian third-movement collage based on Mahler’s famous Scherzo. Indeed, Kahchun Wong and the Hallé perform it when they play Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony the following day on 2nd August.
Indeed, this year’s Proms is great for Mahlerians. The BBC Philharmonic performs Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on 21st July, and on 11th August Ryan Bancroft conducts combined forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Orchestre National de Bretagne in Mahler’s Third, with CBSO Children’s Chorus and mezzo Beth Taylor.
For those looking for an alternative or more intimate experience, there are good options too. Organist Anna Lapwood joins the forward-thinking Norwegian period-instrument group Barokksolistene and the choir of Pembroke College for an all-night Prom on 8th August (from 11pm til 7am). Or check out famed sitar player Anoushka Shankar’s concert with the London Contemporary Orchestra on 12th August. Or consider the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir who perform their tribute to Arvo Pärt at 90, on 31st July, alongside other choral selections.
Concerts ideal for families and young people include Dalia Stasevska and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain on 9th August for Holst’s The Planets, alongside other astronomical offerings from Caroline Shaw and John Williams. Fans of Studio Ghibli will also want to catch a rare in-person appearance from Joe Hisaishi on 14th August, conducting the National Youth Singers in his composition The End of the World, presented alongside Steve Reich’s similarly cinematic The Desert Music.
Another concert recommended for young people would be Eva Ollikainen’s turn conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 13th August, including both Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Ravel’s Bolero, alongside a new commission from leading Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. But in truth, the chance to get up close to an orchestra, as is uniquely possible at the Proms, is likely to be a transformative experience at any age.
The BBC Proms begins on 18th July and continues until 13th September.
See the official BBC Proms website here.
This article was sponsored by BBC Proms.
