At the Proms that is. 

230 pm EDT; 730 pm London 

Listen Online at BBC Radio 3

Listen Again for seven days at Radio 3

First Night programme:

Walton  Overture ‘Portsmouth Point’ (6 mins)
Elgar  Concerto for Cello in E minor (28 mins)
Interval
Beethoven  Symphony No.9 in D minor, ‘Choral’ (70 mins)

Paul Watkins cello
Maria Haan soprano
Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano
Paul Groves tenor
René Pape bass
Philharmonia Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Belohlávek conductor

Proms Guide
Below are links to more information than you ever wanted to know but need to enjoy this year’s Proms.

The official Site  BBC PROMS

From Jessica Duchen: 

“… a substantial piece about the forthcoming programme without grumbling about the Royal Albert Hall’s acoustics, sightlines or temperature, and trying very hard to be enthusiastic since there is some great stuff to be heard. The Independent is running daily ‘Promcasts’, previewing every concert.”

The Times Special Section

Times Picks (my highlights)  –
The Prom Most LIkely To…

. . . BE SHEER MURDER

The bloody deeds of Macbeth and wife, turned into opera by Verdi, are part of a Shakespearean theme running through the season. With the stunning Vladimir Jurowski conducting Glyndebourne forces it should be an impassioned night (July 24).

You might also try Richard Strauss’s take on Macbeth, done as an orchestral tone-poem, is played by the Hallé (July 27). Another operatic figure behaving badly, in Bar-tók’s sizzling psychodrama Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, arrives at the Proms on Aug 20.

. . . INDUCE CONTEMPLATION OF THINGS ETERNAL

Bach’s cantatas are sublime expressions of faith, and these days the heartland of Bach performance is . . . Japan! That may be your impression, anyway, after hearing Masa-aki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan perform three cantatas and a short Bach mass (Aug 7, late night).

You might also try Götter-dämmerung is pretty eternal too. But aching calves or numb bums will surely be forgotten when Christine Brewer and John Tomlinson are in full cry (Aug 12).

. . . RAVISH EAR AND EYE

From cleaner to diva, Anna Netrebko has soared into the top rank of operatic stars, and it is pointless to pretend that her catwalk looks haven’t played a part. But the Russian delivers the vocal and dramatic goods too, as the Last Night audience will discover when she sings the sleepwalking scene from Bellini’s La sonnambula Sep 8).

You might also try No less gorgeous, the American diva Renée Fleming sings Berg and Korngold (Aug 6); while Debo-rah Voigt, another great American soprano, will doubtless chew all available scenery in the last scene of Strauss’s bloodcrazed Salome (Sept 1).

Simon Callow remembers
Kenyon’s final season