Packed Royal Albert Hall at the Proms Audiences at the BBC Proms BBC Proms 2010 16 July - 11...

Mahler's gargantuan Symphony No. 8 with more than 500 musicians, Wagner's The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg with Bryn Terfel and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo are the first three concerts of the 2010 BBC Proms and set the festival spirit for the 116th season, which takes place from Friday 16 July to Saturday 11 September.

Among the other highlights of the two-month festival are two glittering events that bring Broadway to the Proms, one celebrating Stephen Sondheim and the other the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein. There are also major Proms debut concerts for jazz star Jamie Cullum, violinist Nicola Benedetti and the legendary band Penguin Cafe.

The popular Proms tradition of the Beethoven Night is back and the first complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle to be given by a single pianist in any Proms season is undertaken by British pianist Paul Lewis. The 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth brings a range of his music to the season, including performances of six symphonies from such great orchestral partnerships as Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev with the hand-picked players of the World Orchestra for Peace. A complete cycle of Schumann symphonies is the centrepiece of the Proms bicentenary celebrations for that composer, while pianist Maria João Pires returns to the Proms for the first time in more than a decade for a Late Night solo recital of Chopin Nocturnes in honour of his 200th anniversary. Other season strands include focuses on the music of Parry and Scriabin, and a series of concerts inspired by Venice, which culminates in a 400th-anniversary performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Families participating at the Proms; bbc.co.uk/proms

Founded in 1895, the annual BBC Proms consists of more than 70 concerts in London's Royal Albert Hall, a chamber series at Cadogan Hall, educational and children's events, and additional "Proms in the Park" events across the UK on the festival's last night. The Proms is known for the phenomenon of "promming" -- that is, Proms-goers waiting in long lines for significantly lower-priced tickets to hear concerts from standing areas inside the hall -- and for its exhuberant and sometimes noisy concert atmosphere, unusual among modern-day classical events. The evenings culminate in a live big-screen link-up to the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional participatory festivities, this year on September 11, with mass sing-along of 'the Bridal Chorus' from Wagner's Lohengrin and the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.
This year's Last Night of the Proms will feature five open-air "Proms in the Park" concerts in Hyde Park in London, Salford (near Manchester), Dundee in Scotland, Swansea in Wales and Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland.

For more information and to book tickets go to the official site

Published 20.06.2010