Proms: BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Guy Johnston

8.00 Proms: BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Guy Johnston

Musical borrowings, reworkings and reinventions run through this season’s Proms. The invisible thread linking tonight’s concert really begins with Bach. A lilting chaconne from his Cantata No 150 underpins the finale of Brahms’s Symphony No 4, and the latter’s elegant synthesis of heart and head is itself the inspiration for American composer Elizabeth Ogonek’s 'Cloudline', a lyrical homage to ancient musical forms and techniques. The chaconne’s repeating patterns are echoed elsewhere in the circling bass line of Purcell’s powerful 'Lament' from Dido and Aeneas. Cellist Guy Johnston is the soloist in anniversary-composer Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No 1.

Guy Johnston with BBC National Orchestra of Wales at 2021 BBC Proms Photo: Chris Christodoulou

Programme:

PURCELL arr Stokowski: When I am laid in earth;

Elizabeth OGONEK: Cloudline (première);

SAINT-SAENS: Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor Op 33;

BRAHMS: Symphony No 4 in E minor Op 98

Guy Johnston (cello), BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Ryan Bancroft

Recorded in Royal Albert Hall, London by the BBC (EBU)