Here’s your lowdown on today’s BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Hungry for more Proms content? Visit our bumper 2024 BBC Proms guide for all the essential information on the 2024 Proms concerts. These are taking place both at the Royal Albert Hall and at other venues across the UK including Nottingham, Aberdeen and Bristol. We’ve got all the details you need: performers, times, ticket prices and more.
What’s on at the BBC Proms today?
Today’s Prom, Prom 19, features a performance of Edward Elgar‘s noble Cello Concerto, undoubtedly one of the greatest cello concertos of all time.
Elgar’s only cello concerto, it’s one of the most famous of all the works for cello in the classical repertoire. It owes some of its fame to the great cellist Jacqueline du Pré who, before her tragically early death, set down some memorably dramatic performances of this highly charged, emotional masterpiece. Composed after the First World War, it has a melancholy, contemplative feel. Du Pré’s 1965 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli brought the work the fame and admiration it deserved, and remains one of the best recordings of the Elgar cello concerto.
Famously, the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich stopped performing the work after he heard du Pré’s recording. ‘My pupil, Jacqueline du Pré, played it much better than I,’ he observed. The work got a memorable performance at the 2019 BBC Proms, with star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason as the soloist.
As well as the Elgar Cello Concerto, tonight at the Proms you will hear The Cloud Messenger by Gustav Holst. This exotic, evocative choral-orchestral masterpiece was written just before Holst’s best-known work, The Planets. It sets to music a poem by the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa, in which an exiled nature spirit entreats a passing cloud to convey a love message to his wife in the distant Himalayas.
The third work on the programme tonight is Jonathan Harvey’s meditative 1998 chamber orchestra piece Tranquil Abiding.
Who is performing at the BBC Proms today?
For tonight’s Prom, cellist Senja Rummukainen performs the Elgar cello concerto. She will be accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo. For the Holst, orchestra and conductor are joined by the BBC Symphony Chorus and contralto Jess Dandy.
What time does the BBC Proms concert start today?
Prom 19, featuring Elgar Cello Concerto and others, starts at 7.30pm.
Is today’s on TV?
No, it won’t be on TV. But, like all the Proms, you can listen live on BBC Radio 3.
And how much are tickets for the BBC Proms today?
Tickets range from £10 to £44. Another option is to become a Prommer for the day, and join the queue for the chance of an £8 ticket.