Orchestra or Band | BBC National Orchestra of Wales |
Set List | 'Dance Foldings', A Read Thomas, 'Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No.1)', C Ives, 'Symphony No.9 in E Minor, From the New World, Dvorak |
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.
Theres an American accent to this concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and its US-born Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft. Started just months after the composer first docked in America, Dvoraks much-loved New World Symphony was composed in the spirit of the nations own songs and spirituals. Only around 20 years after that, in 1914, came Charles Ivess Three Places in New England, his vivid musical recollections of the sights and sounds of his native Connecticut. A topical new work from American composer Augusta Read Thomas opens both the concert and our series of Proms commissions celebrating the Royal Albert Halls 150th anniversary and its role in promoting the arts and sciences. Dance Foldings takes inspiration from the biological ballet of proteins that a vaccine activates within the human body.
BBC commission and World premiere of 'Dance Foldings', A Read Thomas.
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/1/2021/16) |