BBC Proms Season 39, Episode 7: Proms 85: An American Evening

The First Night of The Proms

In the presence of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Kent Handel 's Messiah (arr Mozart) conducted by Sir John Pritchard Handel's masterpiece has been re-arranged many times and even recorded in a pop version. By contrast Mozart's arrangement, commissioned 200 years ago for a performance in German in Vienna, is restrained and elegant, using a baroque orchestra and redistributing high trumpet parts among the classical wind band. Tonight's concert celebrates the 300th anniversary of Handel's birth.

Omnibus at the Proms

Next Friday Omnibus visits the Royal Albert Hall for the first of six programmes featuring highlights from the 91st season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. Tonight Jane Glover sets the scene with glimpses of rehearsal, Performance and comment from some of the many celebrated musicians who will be appearing.

Omnibus at the Proms

On Friday Omnibus visits the Royal Albert Hall , London, for the first of six programmes featuring highlights from the 91st season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. Tonight Jane Glover sets the scene for a series about one of the most popular music festivals of the year and offers glimpses of rehearsal, performance and comment from among the many celebrated musicians who will be appearing including Salvatore Accardo, Peter Donohoe, Lorin Maazel, Jessye Norman and Simon Rattle.

Omnibus at the Proms

The first of six visits to the 1985 season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Introduced by Jane Glover Tonight featuring the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by the celebrated violinist Salvatore Accardo. With an average age of 23, tonight's performers make up not only one of Europe's finest professional ensembles, but also its youngest. They perform Ravel's colourful and elegant Le tombeau de Couperin and Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with Accardo both conducting and taking the solo part.

Omnibus at the Proms

The second of six visits to the Royal Albert Hall during the 91st season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. Introduced by Jane Glover Who is also making her first Prom appearance as the conductor of the London Mozart Players Jed by PAUL BARRITT Tonight's programme deludes: Schubert Symphony No 5, in B flat, written when the composer was only 19; Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915, solo soprano Yvonne Kenny a tender, nostalgic setting of a poem by JAMES AGEE about the thoughts of an American child on a summer evening; and Mozart Symphony No 34, In c (K 338) written in 1780 Which, says Jane Glover , 'has one of the most brilliant and exuberant finales that he ever wrote'.

Omnibus at the Proms

The visit by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel is one of the highlights of this year's Henry Wood Promenade Concerts and echoes the American theme. Founded in 1926 the orchestra's past conductors have included Fritz Reiner , William Steinberg and Andre Previn. Tonight's programme, recorded earlier this evening and introduced by Jane Glover , will include an interview with Maazel who was himself brought up in Pittsburgh. It consists of one work only: the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz. Berlioz wrote of its first performance in 1830: 'I had a wild success! It was received with shouts and acclamations: they had to repeat the March to the Scaffold; and the Witches' Sabbath was quite overwhelming in its satanic effect.'

Omnibus at the Proms

Introduced by Jane Glover A Programme of two 20th-century masterpieces. Played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Atherton. Before the concert, Jane Glover talks to Peter Donohoe, the soloist in Bartok's Second Piano Concerto. It is one of the most powerful and challenging works in the modern repertoire and Donohoe discusses its many demands. The concert ends with Stravinsky's celebrated Rite of Spring, first performed to a riotous reception just before the First World War.

Omnibus at the Proms

Tonight's visit to the Royal Albert Hall for the 91st season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts introduced by Jane Glover features the London Sinfonietta now one of the world's leading chamber ensembles. In a concert of 20th-century music conducted by David Atherton they play Janacek's Rikadla, a new work by Harrison Birtwistle, Secret Theatre, specially commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for the composer's 50th birthday, and the Suite from The Threepenny Opera - Kurt Weill's uncompromising but unique and witty theatre music.

Omnibus at the Proms

Introduced by Jane Glover Tonight's final visit to the 91st season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts is devoted to a single work: Mahler's epic song-cycle, Das Lied von der Erde. This setting of a group of Passionate, delicate and stoical Chinese poems was written in the final years of Mahler's life. Originally conceived as his Ninth Symphony, he superstitiously withdrew the title because so many ninth symphonies had Proved to be their composers final works and he knew he was suffering from a terminal heart condition. Tonight's performers are Jessye Norman (soprano) Jon Vickers (tenor) with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle Sound JOHN CAULFIELD

The Last Night of the Proms