| Main Performers | Joshua Bell - violin, director |
| Orchestra or Band | Academy of St Martin in the Fields |
| Set List | 'The Four Seasons', Vivaldi,
interspersed with:
'The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires', Piazzolla, arr. Desyatnikov |
| 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.
From an icy Italian winter to the heady, sensual warmth of a South American summer: violinist Joshua Bell leads the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on a musical journey through the sights and sounds of two continents and four very different seasons. Inspired by Vivaldis best-known work, Piazzolla Argentinas 20th-century tango king, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate this year created his own response, complete with musical quotations. While Vivaldis virtuosic concertos celebrate contrast the freshness of spring, with its sudden thunderstorms, versus the languid heat of summer Piazzollas musical landscape remains more constant, always swaying to the pervasive rhythm of the tango.
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. |
| Related Archival Material | Prospectus (RAHE/1/2021/5),
Programme (RAHE/1/2021/) |