San Francisco band's Proms debut, plus Shankar family celebration

The BBC Proms season so far has been strong on new music, with premieres already from John Corigliano, Henri Dutilleux, and James MacMillan. Early music gets some welcome attention this coming week with the first visit of Nicholas McGegan's San Francisco based period ensemble Philharmonia Baroque Ensemble in a Rameau and Handel programme.

Also on the 'don't miss' list is the Shankar family concert with father Ravi celebrating his 85th birthday. New music highlights include a rare chance to hear Luciano Berio's 55 minute protest song, Coro, and a UK premiere for Hans Abrahamsen. It's been a great Proms season so far, helped by the promenaders (almost) stopping their infuriating mannerism of applauding between movements, so don't miss this week's webcasts.

Mainstream Highlights:
Berloz, Romeo and Juliet complete; BBC Scottish Orchestra under their outstanding young conductor, Illan Volkov. Sunday 31st July, 18.30h
Mahler, Ruckert-Lieder; sung by Anne Sophie von Otter with Gothenburg Symphony under Neeme Jarvi. Friday 5th August, 19.30h

New Music:
Woolrich, After the Clock; lunchtime prom from elite ensemble of young players. Also includes Lutoslawski and Copland’s evergreen Appalachian Spring. Monday 1st August, 13.00h
Abrahamsen, Four pieces for orchestra; UK premiere. Monday 1st August, 19.30h
Berio, Coro; Rarelly heard choral masterpiece performed by London Sinfonietta players and voices under Diego Masson in a late-night Prom (note start time). It contrasts lines from the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda with folk-texts from the Americas, Africa, Croatia, Persian and Polynesia. Tuesday 2nd August, 22.00h
Ravi Shankar, Sitar Concerto No.1 played by the composer and his daughter Anoushka; Indian themed concert ends with a sequence of evening ragas. The concert is going ahead despite Air France smashing the master's sitars - see photo of Ravi and Anoushka Sitar. Interestingly both Ravi Shakar and Placido Domingo make their Proms debut this season. Wednesday 3rd August, 19.30h
Watkins, Double concerto for viola and cello; world premiere, plus Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Thursday 4th August, 19.00h

Early Music:
Rameau and Handel, including excerpts from early and late operas by Rameau, plus arias from two great Handel oratorios; with San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque. Tuesday 2nd August, 19.00h

All the concerts above are being broadcast live by BBC Radio 3, and are available as live web casts. Many of them are also available for seven days after broadcast on the BBC Listen Again service but some aren’t. Check BBC listings for which are available via ‘listen again’ but as a rule of thumb high profile orchestras and artists are usually too expensive for the BBC to buy repeat broadcast rights.This is a personal, and fallible, selection of the week's concerts. The full weeks programmes are available through this link. Concerts start dates are given in British Summer Time using 24 hour clock (19.00h = 7.00pm) Convert these timings to your local time zone using this linkThe Guardian are reviewing every Prom this season. Access their reviews via this link.

This preview of the following week's Proms appears every week on an overgrown path. If you want to share an upcoming concert with a friend email the post to them using the envelope icon at the foot of the post.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
What a shame about the smashed sitars
Nice photo - she looks like him.

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