| Main Performers | Pierre-Laurent Aimard - piano |
| Set List | 'The Way to Castle Yonder', Knussen,
'Three Consorts (1680)', Purcell, transcr. G Benjamin,
'Piano Concerto in G major', Ravel,
'Concerto for Orchestra', G Benjamin |
| Performance Notes | In 2021, the BBC Proms returns to the Royal Albert Hall for a summer of live music, as it has done every year since 1941. With 52 concerts over 44 days, featuring 30 orchestras and ensembles and more than 2,000 musicians, this ambitious season promises a celebration of live music on a scale not seen since before the pandemic. From the power of a symphony orchestra to the sheer joy of a single performer on the Halls magnificent organ, this summer we look forward to coming together through music. Every Prom will be live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.
When the 20-year-old George Benjamins Ringed by the Flat Horizon was performed at the Proms in 1980, it marked an arrival for a precociously talented young composer. Now established as one of the greats of his generation, he returns to conduct regular collaborators, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, in a concert featuring Ravels jazz-infused Piano Concerto, an operatic pot-pourri by his friend, the late Oliver Knussen, the world premiere of his own Concerto for Orchestra and his new reworkings of Fantasias by Purcell, the English Orpheus.
World premiere of 'The Way to Castle Yonder', Knussen.
BBC co-commission with Mahler Chamber Orchestra and world premiere of 'Concerto for Orchestra', George Benjamin.
The season was shortened to six, rather than eight, weeks because of the financial risk to the BBC not knowing audience sizes due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
An afternoon (13:00) and evening (18:00) Prom were held at Cadogan Hall, London. A triptych of 20th-century sonatas by Saint-Saens, Dutilleux and Poulenc forms the heart of this programme. The cool lines of Saint- Saenss neo-Classical sonata give way to the edgier, mercurial beauty of Dutilleuxs, while the Poulenc pays musical homage to its dedicatee, Sergey Prokofiev, ending with a ravishing lament. Eugene Bozzas lyrical Fantaisie pastorale and Ruth Gippss vivid Sea-Shore Suite complete the recital. |
| Related Archival Material | Prospectus (RAHE/1/2021/5),
Programme (RAHE/1/2021/) |