Set List | 'Where Icebergs Dance Away', C Bray, 'Viola Concerto', W Walton INTERVAL 'Symphony No.5', Arnold |
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.
A world away from centenary composer Malcolm Arnolds reputation for light music and film scores, the Fifth Symphony is a richly layered work full of irony, pain and loss. An opening musical garden of memories pays affectionate homage to departed friends, while the scherzo flirts with jazz and the finale offers a tantalising glimpse of heaven before snatching it cruelly away. Waltons poetic Viola Concerto was given its world premiere at the Proms in 1929. Global warming is the stimulus behind Charlotte Brays Where Icebergs Dance Away, which draws on the work of American artist Zaria Forman.
UK premiere of 'Where Icebergs Dance Away', Charlotte Bray.
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/), Digital Photographs |