There’s magic, sorcery and fairy tales in the air today at the BBC Proms. Prom 38, taking place on Sunday 18 August at London’s Royal Albert Hall, features the much-loved Sorcerer’s Apprentice by the French composer Paul Dukas, and the 1945 orchestral suite taken from Igor Stravinsky‘s magical, fairytale-inspired ballet The Firebird .
This is your daily Proms roundup – keep checking back at www.classical-music.com for your essential programme notes to each of this summer’s Proms. And, if you need all the information for this year’s Proms in one place – dates, times, prices, performers, repertoire – head over to our bells-and-whisltes 2024 BBC Proms guide. We’ve got all the listings info you need to all the Royal Albert Hall Proms, plus events taking place elsewhere across the UK – weekend festivals at Gateshead, Bristol and Nottingham, and chamber music concerts at Aberdeen, Belfast and Newport
What’s on at the Proms today?
Today’s Prom includes The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the hugely popular symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas (1865-1935). Composed in 1897, it’s become by far Dukas’s best known work thanks to its use in the legendary 1940 Disney film Fantasia.
Inspired by a poem of the same name by the great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Dukas’s colourful and captivating work hails from the same school of vivid, atmospheric ‘programme music’ created by composers such as Liszt, Debussy, Strauss and Sibelius. Unlike some of these (Debussy’s La mer, for example), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is quite specific in its programme: it is a faithful portrayal in music of the events of Goethe’s poem.
Next on tonight’s programme is a new Cello Concerto by the young Spanish composer Francisco Coll. A BBC co-commission, the work gets its UK premiere tonight. We’ll also hear Giacomo Puccini‘s Preludio sinfonico. Puccini is, of course, best known for his operas, such as La bohème, Tosca, Madam Butterfly, and Turandot (from which the famous aria ‘Nessun Dorma’, popularised by The Three Tenors, is taken). However, he did compose some orchestral works, of which the 1882 Preludio sinfonico is a prime example.
At the BBC Proms today: magnificent, atmospheric Stravinsky
Next, it’s onto the other main work of the evening: the 1945 suite taken from Stravinsky‘s masterful ballet 1910 The Firebird. This magnificent stage work draws on Slavic folklore, which often features a magical burning bird from some faraway land, often bearing some prophecy about the future.
Strabinsky’s ballet centres on Prince Ivan, who encounters the Firebird in an enchanted garden. He tries to capture her, but she escapes – leaving a feather, and instructions to use it if he is ever in trouble.
At the castle of the evil Kostcheï, the Prince meets the beautiful Tsarevna. However, his jealous host attempts to turn the Prince into stone. When Ivan waves the feather, The Firebird appears. The Prince is throws a giant egg to the ground, destroying Kostcheï’s soul, and setting up a happy ending for Prince Ivan and Tsarevna.
Stravinsky’s vivid, intensely lyrical and dramatic rendering of this colourful tale bears echoes of his Russian predecessors such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. Many of the melodies of The Firebird also draw on Russian folk music. Elsewhere, we hear daring chromatic harmonies that seem to owe more to the likes of Scriabin and Debussy. It’s a hugely impressive tour de force of atmospheric storytelling, and we put it high up in our list of the best Stravinsky ballets.
Who is performing at the BBC Proms today?
Today’s Proms performers are the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Chinese-born New Zealand conductor Tianyi Lu. They are joined by the Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta for the Cello Concerto by Francisco Coll.