Simon O'Neill at the BBC Proms Photo: Chris Christodoulou, BBC
“Serious Stamina” on show as the Proms continue
Another 'Unfinished Symphony' this week - this time from Proms poster boy Elgar, who left only sketches and a part orchestration of his Symphony No 3 when he died in 1934. Composer Anthony Payne began his transcription of the Symphony in the early 1990s and it had its first performance in 1998 to immediate acclaim.
On Monday night, the Proms offers up some lush, late romantic music from Arnold Schoenberg. New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill embraces the role of the lovelorn Danish King Waldemar in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder (said to be his answer to Wagner’s ‘Tristan and Isolde’). O’Neill is joined on the Royal Albert Hall stage by a line-up of starry soloists including Eva-Maria Westbroek and Thomas Quasthoff, with the London Symphony Orchestra and a huge chorus presided over by Simon Rattle. Reviews have described O’Neill as a “penetrating tenor” displaying “serious stamina”.
Monday 4 September
7.00 Music Alive
Eva-Maria Westbroek (Tove), Simon O'Neill (Waldemar), Karen Cargill (Waldtaube), Peter Hoare (Klaus the Fool), Christopher Purves (Peasant), Thomas Quasthoff (narrator), London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Simon Rattle
SCHOENBERG: Gurrelieder (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
Tuesday 5 September
7.00 Music Alive
Javier Perianes (piano), BBC SO/Sakari Oramo
SIBELIUS: Scènes historiques, Suite No 1; SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 22; ELGAR orch Payne: Symphony No 3 (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
Wednesday 6 September
7.00 Music Alive
Svatopluk Sem (baritone), Men of the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Jakub Hrusa
TRAD: You who are Warriors of God; SMETANA: Má Vlast (excerpts); MARTINU: Field Mass; DVORAK: Hussite Overture Op 67; JANACEK: The Excursions of Mr Broucek; SUK: Prague Op 26 (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
Pines of Rome Photo: America Pink, Public Domain
Thursday 7 September
10.00 Weekday Classics with Clarissa Dunn
Leonidas Kavakos (violin), La Scala Orchestra, Milan/Riccardo Chailly
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D Op 77; RESPIGHI: Fountains of Rome; Pines of Rome (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
Sunday 10 September
10.00 BBC Proms 2017
Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava
RACHMANINOV: Vespers Op 37 (recorded by the BBC, Royal Albert Hall, London)
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