BBC Proms

Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary will be celebrated at the BBC proms this year.

The Doctor Who Prom will run over two nights and celebrate the series with special scenes shown and music from its teenaged fans.

BBC Cymru Wales Director, Rhodri Talfan Davies, said: “I’m sure that audiences will also enjoy Doctor Who’s own orchestra performing in a number of spectacular Proms at the Royal Albert Hall – including the first Proms under Thomas’ skilful baton – and I’m looking forward to seeing the Orchestra once again representing Wales to a national and international audience as part of the season.” Continue reading »

7:45pm Friday 31 August on BBC FOUR

From the Royal Albert Hall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir perform an English symphonic masterpiece, Elgar’s First Symphony.

Herbert Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi is a personal memorial, written after the tragic death of his nine-year-old son. Following this intensely emotional work is a proms favourite, Edward Elgar’s First Symphony, the composition that heralded his arrival as a great British symphonist.

Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

2:45pm Monday 27 August on BBC ONE

The nation’s favourite plasticine characters make their Proms debut in this programme of popular classics for all the family.

The specially filmed new Wallace and Gromit animations feature the dynamic duo’s backstage exploits as they prepare for the first performance of Wallace’s brand new work, My Concerto in Ee Lad.

On stage are the Aurora Orchestra, violin soloist Tasmin Little with conductor and host Nicholas Collon performing some classical favourites.

Presenter/Samira Ahmed

8:00pm Saturday 25 August on BBC TWO

Gilbert and Sullivan’s richest and most emotionally engaging operetta, set at the Tower of London in the 16th Century, is considered by many to be Sullivan’s finest musical score.

Young Colonel Fairfax is imprisoned under the sentence of death for sorcery but a young girl, Phoebe Meryll, and her father, who served with Fairfax in the army, plan to save him from the Tower. Add to the story a lovelorn jailer, a young singer, a jester and the Yeomen themselves, and you have the makings of a typical G&S operetta filled with humour and twists of plot.

Performers

Elsie Maynard ….. Lisa Milne (soprano)

Colonel Fairfax ….. Andrew Kennedy (tenor)

Jack Point ….. Mark Stone (baritone)

Dame Carruthers ….. Felicity Palmer (mezzo-soprano)

Sergeant Meryll ….. Mark Richardson (baritone)

Wilfred Shadbolt ….. Toby Stafford-Allen (bass)

Phoebe Meryll ….. Victoria Simmonds (mezzo-soprano)

Lieutenant Sir Richard Cholmondeley ….. Leigh Melrose (bass-baritone)

Leonard Meryll ….. Tom Randle (tenor)

Kate ….. Mary Bevan (soprano)

First Yeoman ….. Jonathan McGovern (baritone)

Second Yeoman ….. Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)

Martin Duncan (director)

BBC Singers

BBC Concert Orchestra

Jane Glover (conductor)

Presenter/Katie Derham

7:30pm Thursday 23 August on BBC FOUR

From the Royal Albert Hall, the vast forces of the National Youth Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko perform Messiaen’s Turangal�la Symphony, the composer’s iconic musical celebration of love.

The programme also includes Varese’s brilliant musical parody Tuning Up, Anna Meredith’s acclaimed HandsFree, featuring body percussion, and the London premiere of Nico Muhly’s innovative Gait inspired by the motion of horses.

Presenter/Charles Hazlewood

8:00pm Saturday 18 August on BBC TWO

Music and artists from both American hemispheres perform in tonight’s concert from the Royal Albert Hall.

The Prom opens with Dvor�k’s symphonic masterpiece, From The New World. The second half brings Copland’s iconic Fanfare For The Common Man coupled with Fanfare For The Uncommon Woman, by Joan Tower. Works by Villa-Lobos and Ginastera add Latin American colour.

It’s the first ever visit to the Proms by the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra, together with the return of the distinguished Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire and conductor Marin Alsop.

Presenter/Katie Derham

7:30pm Friday 17 August on BBC FOUR

From the Royal Albert Hall, Mark Armstrong conducts the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, featuring Britain’s best young jazz musicians in a wide-ranging set of jazz favourites.

The programme includes Duke Ellington’s The Queen’s Suite to mark the Diamond Jubilee year, and a new commission by saxophonist Tim Garland.

7:30pm Thursday 16 August on BBC FOUR

Tonight’s concert is a rare opportunity to hear a significant trio of English symphonies in the same concert.

Andrew Manze conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Symphonies 4, 5 and 6 by Vaughan Williams, a composer whose work played a significant role in the reawakening of English music in the 20th century.

7:30pm Thursday 9 August on BBC FOUR

Tadaaki Otaka conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, the BBC Symphony Chorus and London Brass in a celebration of British music from the Royal Albert Hall.

Vaughan Williams’s much loved Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is followed by the beautiful but rarely performed These Things Shall Be by John Ireland, with baritone soloist Jonathan Lemalu.

Delius’s The Walk to the Paradise Garden marks the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth before all the forces combine for Walton’s iconic Belshazzar’s Feast.

Presenter/Samira Ahmed

This summer, BBC One’s award-winning Planet Dinosaur and the world-famous Last Night of the Proms will be broadcast for the first time in 3D on the BBC’s HD Channel.

These two events join select coverage of Wimbledon and the Olympics in a Summer of 3D, part of the BBC’s two-year trial experimenting with 3D production and distribution.

Planet Dinosaur 3D, scheduled to broadcast in August 2012 and adapted from the award winning BBC One series, will recreate the lost world of the dinosaurs in a ground-breaking stereoscopic production. Planet Dinosaur 3D will take viewers on a thrilling journey into a lost world: from the iconic Spinosaurus, the largest predator ever to walk the Earth, to Microraptor and the advent of flying dinosaurs in China, this programme charts the rise and fall of the ‘ultimate killers’. Continue reading »