Insider Guide: Pick of the Proms

The BBC Proms are marketed as “the world's greatest classical music festival”. Eight weeks worth of nightly concerts featuring a dazzling line-up of orchestras, conductors and soloists certainly bolster that claim, even if the acoustics of its main venue – the Royal Albert Hall – detract from its appeal for some listeners.

‘Proms’ come from the title Promenade Concerts, a term which originally referred to outdoor concerts in London's pleasure gardens, where audiences could stroll around during performances. ‘Promming’, in the sense of the RAH, means standing, either in the Arena directly in front of the orchestra or high up in the Gallery. Prommers argue about which location is better for hearing the music. The sound in the Arena is probably better than in the expensive Stalls seating though, where the sound can bounce around the hall so you hear some parts of the music twice. At just £6 a ticket, promming is an outstanding bargain. The atmosphere inside the hall is always very special, especially with a capacity audience (over 5000) packed in for a world class orchestra and conductor.

Public booking for the 2017 opens at 9am on Saturday 13th May. Before then, you can prepare your ‘Proms Planner’ which makes the booking process – once you emerge from the online Waiting Room – much swifter. Be warned, it gets very busy and even getting into the Waiting Room can be a frustrating experience. Popular concerts will sell out very quickly so being organised and having a clear plan of attack is essential.

Here’s our Insider Guide ‘Pick of the Proms’ to highlight what’s on offer this season.

The final weeks of the season are often packed with visiting orchestras, often on their international tours which take in Lucerne and Edinburgh festivals. However, the opening weekend features some of the season’s biggest names – the Staatskapelle Berlin and its chief conductor, Daniel Barenboim. London loves Barenboim and Barenboim loves London. His Proms are always special occasions, be it his Ring Cycle or his concerts with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. His love affair with Elgar continues, with each of his two concerts (Prom 2 and Prom 4) featuring one of the symphonies. If the Berliners weren’t enough to make the opening weekend unmissable, there’s also a Sunday matinee prom from Bernard Haitink with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a programme of Mozart and Schumann (Prom 3).

Other international orchestras heading to London include François-Xavier Roth’s terrific French period instrument band Les Siècles (Prom 42), the Filarmonica della Scala under Riccardo Chailly (Prom 54), the Cincinnati Symphony (Prom 58), the Royal Concertgebouw (Prom 64 and Prom 66), the Pittsburgh Symphony (Prom 69) and – the icing on the cake – the Vienna Philharmonic (Prom 72 and Prom 74).

If Sir Henry Wood is the name most associated with the Proms – his bronze bust beadily watches over events in front of the RAH organ – then Sir Malcolm Sargent can’t be far behind. It was Sargent, known in the trade as ‘Flash Harry’, who established most of the traditions we now take for granted, especially the Last Night shenanigans. To mark the 50th anniversary of Sargent’s death, Sir Andrew Davis recreates his 500th Prom from 1966, which highlights Sargent’s championing of British music (Prom 13).

New music has always been a driving force at the Proms. Impresario Robert Newman stated his aim to Henry Wood: “I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music.” This season sees significant premières by Julian Anderson (Prom 16), Anders Hillborg (Prom 18), James MacMillan (Prom 21), Mark-Anthony Turnage (Prom 39) and Missy Mazzoli (Prom 70).

Operaphiles have a slightly richer season than in recent years: Beethoven’s Fidelio features Ricarda Merbeth and Stuart Skelton, conducted by Juanjo Mena (Prom 9); Semyon Bychkov is at the helm for Mussorgsky’s gigantic Khovanshchina (Prom 29); and Glyndebourne brings a semi-staging of its new production of La clemenza di Tito (Prom 59). Not quite an opera, but Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust is a cracking piece and hearing it performed on period instruments should be fascinating (Prom 31). 

Not all the concerts take place at the Albert Hall. Chamber music matinees at Cadogan Hall make for an attractive Monday lunch break, while the Proms returns to the Multi-Storey Car Park in Peckham and takes its bow at Wilton’s Music Hall and Tate Modern. There’s even an awayday outside London, with a site-specific performance at Hull’s dry dock (UK City of Culture) of music inspired by the theme of water.

It’s always interesting seeing which proms attract our reviewers. At present, the concert with most requests to review is Prom 46 – Schoenberg’s epic Gurrelieder, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under its Music Director Designate Sir Simon Rattle, just weeks before taking up his eagerly anticipated new appointment. 

Click here to view our complete BBC Proms listings on just two pages. Enjoy picking your Proms!