Heres a brief introduction to the BBC Proms concert (Prom 33) taking place today, Tuesday 13 August, at London’s Royal Albert Hall. And it’s something of a paean to London, the great city that hosts the Proms (and so much more).
Hungry for more Proms? Our bumper 2024 BBC Proms guide contains all the information you need – dates, times, prices, performers and repertoire – for all this year’s Proms concerts, both in London and elsewhere. Yes, you’ll also find details on this year’s chamber music concerts in Newport, Aberdeen and Belfast, and on the weekend-long festivals taking place in Gateshead, Bristol and Nottingham.
What’s on at the BBC Proms today?
Today’s Proms lineup is a thoroughly British and Irish affair – and a love of the great, bustling, noisy and beautiful city of London is evident across the programme. We begin with Elgar‘s boisterous overture Cockaigne (In London Town). Written in 1901 soon after the twin masterpieces of the Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius, Cockaigne is loving portrait of the noise, energy and confidence of Edwardian London. The composer himself called it ‘cheerful and Londony, ‘stout and steaky’…honest, healthy, humorous and strong, but not vulgar.’
The London theme continues with Gustav Holst‘s Hammersmith, a prelude and Scherzo that pays tribute to the riverside London district where the composer spent most of his life.
- Holst: five essential works
- Holst’s The Planets: a guide to this truly cosmic work and its best recordings
Prom 33 continues with four songs from the collection Songs of Faith by the Anglo-Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford. The evening’s most significant work, meanwhile, is another hymn to the great city of London: Vaughan Williams‘s Symphony No. 2, known as A London Symphony, which includes evocations of the chimes of Westminster Abbey; Hampstead Heath on an August Bank Holiday; and Bloomsbury Square on a November afternoon.
Who is performing at tonight’s Prom?
The performers for tonight’s Prom are the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Proms’s ‘home’ orchestra who appear no fewer than 12 times during the 2024 Proms (tonight is their sixth performance, so they’ll be halfway through come the end of it!). They are conducted by Martyn Brabbins, and joined by baritone Christopher Maltman for Stanford’s Songs of Faith.
What time does tonight’s Prom start?
Prom 33 gets going at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 13 August 2024.
And how much are tickets for the BBC Proms today?
You ca get tickets for Prom 33 at a range of prices between £11 and £54. Or, why not join those legendary Prommers and queue for possibility of a ticket on the day for just £8?