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BBC Proms home page
About the Festival

"The Proms started off with a very evangelical aim of trying to bring people to music and over the last 100 years Britain has become a much more musical culture and people are actively interested in classical music but there's always a need for the new generation to come to classical music for the first time and for the enthusiasts that exist to have their horizons broadened by a whole range of new and interesting work."
—Nicholas Kenyon, controller of The BBC Proms.
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Program Highlights

 

August 25, 2008
BBC Scottish Symphony with Stefan Solyom conducting along with Richard Watkins, horn; Tasmin Little, violin, perform J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Smyth's Double Concerto for Horn, Violin, and Orchestra, and Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2

September 1, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra along with Olga Kern, piano perform Chen Yi's Olympic Fire, Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 6. Leonard Slatkin conducts.

September 8, 2008
City of London Sinfonia along with Sharon Bezaly, flute; Rebecca Evans, soprano; Pamela Helen Stephen, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Walker, tenor; Matthew Rose, bass; BBC Singers perform Mozart's Symphony No. 34, Osborne's Flute Concerto, and Beethoven's Mass in C. Richard Hickox conducts

September 13, 2008: Last Night of the Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra along with Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone; Hélène Grimaud, piano; BBC Singers; BBC Symphony Chorus perform Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus, Wagner's "Wie Todesahnung Dämmrung", Puccini's Tosca – "Tre sbirri, Una carrozza", Verdi's Falstaff – "Ehi paggio!", Beethoven's Fantasia in c for piano, chorus and orchestra "Choral Fantasy". Sir Roger Norrington conducts.

September 15, 2008
BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis conducting performs Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Job: A Masque for Dancing, Serenade to Music, Symphony No. 9

September 22, 2008
Berlin Philharmonic performs Brahms' Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. Sir Simon Rattle conducts.

September 29, 2008
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Bernard Haitink conducting, performs Mark-Anthony Turnage's Chicago Remains and Mahler's Symphony No. 6.

 


 
The audience at the Last Night of the Proms, 2003

A Primer on English Culture

Britishness is a political idea...an identity which was formed when England and Scotland...Wales doesn't count for the purposes of this argument because they've really not got a sufficiently defined sense of their own identity...I'm waiting therefore to be thumped by any Welshman that may be listening...
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More from the BBC

The Proms is 114 years old and still remains true to its original aim: to present the widest possible range of music, performed to the highest standards, to large audiences.
Read more about the history of this event

Get a feel for the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms season with 360° virtual tours

Listen to BBC Proms concerts on the Web as they happen

Go to the BBC Web site >>