There is, of course, plenty of populist tripe but the following concerts may be of real interest to some of us here
Monday 15 July
Prom 5: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
Jonathan Nott conducts the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, whose Adagietto is a tender tribute to his wife, Alma. The Arditti Quartet joins the orchestra for the UK premiere of Helmut Lachenmann’s vast and atmospheric Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied.
Thursday 18 July
Prom 9: Stenhammar, Szymanowski & R. Strauss 7.00pm, Royal Albert Hall
Nordic forests, Alpine sunlight and a Moorish nocturne. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Thomas Søndergård play Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Excelsior!, Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony and Szymanowski’s opulent symphony subtitled ‘The Song of the Night’.
Thursday 8 August
Prom 33: Beethoven, Berlioz 7.00pm, Royal Albert Hall
Mitsuko Uchida plays Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor, Mariss Jansons. The opium-fuelled idylls and nightmares of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique complete one of the festival’s hottest programmes.
Friday 9 August
Prom 35: Mahler – 'Resurrection' Symphony 7.00pm, Royal Albert Hall
In their second BBC Proms appearance this season, Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra are joined by Genia Kühmeier, Anna Larsson and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus for Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection’, bringing a vision of life after death.
Friday 9 August
Prom 36: Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Bach 10.00pm, Royal Albert Hall
A late-night feast of sinfonias, arias and chorales as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, 70 this year, conducts the singers and players of the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in Bach’s Easter Oratorio and Ascension Oratorio.
Saturday 17 August
Prom 47: Brahms – A German Requiem 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
Marin Alsop conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Choir of the Enlightenment in a rare performance of Brahms’s A German Requiem on period instruments. Brahms’s Tragic Overture and Schumann’s Fourth Symphony complete a powerful programme of mourning and consolation.
Monday 26 August
Prom 58: Light Organ Prom 4.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
A Bank Holiday recital exploring the lighter side of the organ. Richard Hills’s matinée includes music by John Ireland, Edward German, Eric Coates and Arthur Sullivan, as well as skirting the fringes of jazz.
Sunday 1 September
Prom 67: Arvo Pärt, Britten, Berlioz & Saint-Saëns 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten opens Paavo Järvi’s performance with the Orchestre de Paris. Janine Jansen is the soloist in Britten’s Violin Concerto. Berlioz’s Le corsaire overture and Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony complete a programme of vivid contrasts.
Thursday 5 September
Prom 73: Imogen Cooper and Paul Lewis play Schubert 10.15pm, Royal Albert Hall
In the final Late Night Prom of the season, pianist Imogen Cooper plays Schubert’s late Sonata in C minor. Paul Lewis joins her for the composer’s ‘Grand Duo’, written in Slovakia in the summer of 1824 when Schubert was music-master to Marie and Caroline Esterházy.
Friday 6 September
Prom 74: Vienna Philharmonic 7.30pm, Royal Albert Hall
Lorin Maazel conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony. Klaus Sonnleitner – the present-day successor to Bruckner as organist at St Florian’s Abbey in Linz – sets the scene with a sequence of works by Bach, one of Bruckner’s idols.
and there is Wagner's complete Ring Cycle led by Daniel Barenboim, Donald Runnicles and others too.
