Here’s your guide to what’s on on today at the BBC Proms. It’s a busy day at the Proms, with not one but two concerts taking place at the Royal Albert Hall.
Can’t get enough of the Proms? Just head over to our 2024 BBC Proms guide for all you need to know about the 2024 lineup. Here, we’ve listed all the concerts, taking place both at the Royal Albert Hall and at other venues across the UK. Bristol, Nottingham and Gateshead are all hosting weekend festivals, and there are chamber music concerts in Aberdeen, Belfast and Newport. Here you’ll find details on performers, times, ticket prices and all you need for successful Promming!
What’s on at the BBC Proms today?
There are two BBC Proms concerts taking place at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 4 August 2024. In the morning, at 11am, it’s Folk Songs with the Kanneh-Masons. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his violinist brother Braimah are joined by the guitarist Plínio Fernandes and the Fantasia Orchestra and their conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh, for performances of traditional folk songs and dances and much-loved songs including Bartók‘s Romanian Folk Dances, and arrangements of three of Brahms‘s Hungarian Dances.
You’ll also hear arrangements of Burt Bacharach’s ‘I Say a Little Prayer’, Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’, Laura Mvula’s ‘Sing to the Moon’ and the much-loved traditional folk song ‘Scarborough Fair‘.
Who’s performing at the BBC Proms tonight?
Then this evening, the Proms get a visit from the acclaimed Sinfonia of London and their talismanic conductor John Wilson. They will be performing a brilliant-looking all-American bill, including the UK premiere of Herald, Holler and Hallelujah!, a brand new work by the brilliant trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. John Wilson and the SInfonia picked up two awards at the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards, including the Opera Award for their recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s great musical Oklahoma!
Elsewhere on the bill you’ll find the suite from Aaron Copland‘s 1938 ballet Billy the Kid – suite, Samuel Barber‘s much-loved Adagio for strings, and George Gershwin‘s iconic Rhapsody in Blue. The soloist for this wonderful, jazz-infused piano concerto is pianist Steven Osborne.
Completing this delicious all-American bill is Charles Ives‘s The Unanswered Question and John Adams‘s Harmonielehre. Of the latter, Adams wrote that the work ‘was a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future’.
Are today’s BBC Proms on TV?
Prom 20, Folk Songs with the Kanneh-Masons, is being recorded for broadcast on BBC Four. Prom 21, featuring the Sinfonia of London and John WIlson, will be live on BBC Four from 8pm. And you can hear both Proms (as you can all the BBC Proms) on BBC Radio 3.
What time do the BBC Proms concerts start today?
Prom 20 starts at 11am and Prom 21 starts at 8pm.
And how much are tickets for the BBC Proms today?
Tickets for Prom 20, featuring the Kanneh-Masons, range from £11 to £54. This evening’s Prom, featuring the all-American programme, is priced between £15 and £64. And you always have the option of joining the day’s Prommers, and queuing for the chance of an £8 ticket.