91Èȱ¬ Proms 2007
Overview
The great tradition of the 91Èȱ¬ Proms, one of
the world’s great music festivals, presents a
celebratory season that looks to the future and
marks the 80th anniversary of the partnership
between the Proms and the 91Èȱ¬.
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In 2007, the 91Èȱ¬ marks 80 years of running the
Proms by revisiting some of the great works
introduced to London, the UK or the world by
the Proms since the 1927 season, in a shared
vision of making the best of great music available
to all.
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Celebrating the past, the 91Èȱ¬ Proms looks
to creating the music and performers of the
future through concerts and broadcasting.
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In 2007
there are many new works (including 12 91Èȱ¬
commissions), unparalleled opportunities for
talented young performers as well as more ways
than ever for a new generation to get involved.
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In just two months the season spans eight
centuries of music in 90 concerts. From the
13th-century Icelandic sagas that inspired Wagner,
to the rediscovery of a lost Renaissance Mass,
through the Baroque genius of Handel, Bach and
Rameau, to the great orchestral repertory from
the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (including new
commissions), the music is performed by leading
artists from across the globe.
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Celebrating the past: Proms firsts
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Marking the 80th anniversary of the unique partnership
established between the 91Èȱ¬ and the Proms in 1927, Proms
Firsts revisit some of the works introduced to London, the UK
or the world at the Proms.
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It takes in classics by Ravel,
Shostakovich, Walton, Britten, Mahler and Ives and reaches to
some of the lasting successes of recent years by Sir Harrison
Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, HK Gruber, Oliver Knussen, James
MacMillan and Judith Weir.
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The 91Èȱ¬'s symphony orchestras all
have a major role in this retrospective, as do some of the
great visiting orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons and the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim.
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Words and music
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Shakespeare and Music is one of the season's main themes,
bringing Shakespeare-inspired music by more than 25
composers to 20 Proms events.
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From 18th-century pieces
by Arne and Linley, through 19th-century masterpieces by
Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Verdi (including Macbeth from
Glyndebourne), the Shakespeare theme reaches the 20th
century and the present, in works by Bernstein (West Side
Story, based on Romeo and Juliet, is 50 this year, with excerpts
in two Proms), John Dankworth, Oliver Knussen and Sibelius
(including the complete incidental music to The Tempest).
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WH Auden (born 100 years ago) and Blake (born 250 years
ago) are also celebrated with music by Britten, Sir John
Tavener and Bernstein.
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Remarkable events
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Wagner's Götterdämmerung receives its first complete Proms
performance, bringing the Proms four-year Ring cycle to its
end.
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Maxim Vengerov combines tango-dancing with the viola
and electric violin in a unique new concerto, while Nitin
Sawhney fuses the music of Asia and Europe for the 21st
century.
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Michael Ball brings the West End to the Royal Albert
Hall, while Cleo Laine and John Dankworth celebrate their
80th birthdays in style.
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There is the first modern performance
of a rediscovered Renaissance Mass in 40 and 60 parts by
Alessandro Striggio and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, having missed its annual appearance last season following a fire
at the Royal Albert Hall, is heard on the opening night of the
Proms for the first time, and then again near the end of the
season with Mariss Jansons and his Bavarian forces.
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Brass Day
promises to be loud, memorable and a major highlight of the
season.
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Great maestros bring top visitors
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Claudio Abbado brings the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for its
Proms debut and Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Chailly
conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus
orchestras in their first partnerships at the Proms.
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Sir Roger
Norrington conducts the historic Handel and Haydn Society
of Boston in its Proms debut. James Levine makes his first
Proms appearance as music director of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, and there are appearances too from Mariss Jansons
and Michael Tilson Thomas with their orchestras, the Bavarian
Radio and San Francisco symphony orchestras.
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Extraordinary collaborations
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The London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre
National de France come together on stage to celebrate the
conductor most strongly associated with each, Kurt Masur,
who conducts this special concert for his 80th birthday.
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Another two-orchestra collaboration has period players from
the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performing with
the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in music by Handel, Telemann
and Purcell. Sir John Eliot Gardiner brings his period instrument
forces together with the Buskaid Soweto String
Ensemble, Dance for All, and Parisian dance Compagnie
Roussat-Lubek for an extraordinary performance of Rameau.
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Nitin Sawhney invites dancer/choreographers Akram Khan and
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to take part in his broad-ranging Prom,
while Maxim Vengerov dances with Brazilian tango queen
Christiane Palha in the UK premiere of Benjamin Yusupov’s
Viola Tango Rock Concerto.
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Anniversaries
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The 91Èȱ¬ Proms celebrates Elgar in the 150th anniversary of
his birth with a star-studded performance of The Apostles, a
First Night Cello Concerto from Paul Watkins, Proms
Chamber Music concerts and a weekend which includes his
Serenade for Strings, choral and organ works and his much-loved
Enigma Variations. Sibelius died 50 years ago and is
remembered across six events including a performance of his
complete incidental music to The Tempest and three of his
best-loved symphonies.
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The centenary of Grieg’s death is
marked by the orchestra from his home town, the Bergen
Philharmonic, plus performances of his lyrical Holberg Suite and
choral Psalms. Other anniversaries noted include Elizabeth
Maconchy (born 1907), Buxtehude (died 1707), Domenico
Scarlatti (died 1757), and Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Eric
Coates, both of whom died in 1957.
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Exciting new work
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The 91Èȱ¬ Proms continues to look to the future with 12
works commissioned or co-commissioned by the 91Èȱ¬ from
such diverse voices as John Adams, Richard Rodney Bennett,
Judith Bingham, Thea Musgrave, Rachel Portman, Esa-Pekka
Salonen and Judith Weir, as well as 91Èȱ¬ commissions for Brett
Dean, Sam Hayden, Aaron Jay Kernis, Guto Puw and Peter
Wiegold.
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There are other major premieres from Thomas Adès,
Elliott Carter, John Dankworth, Hans Werner Henze, David
Matthews and Benjamin Yusupov.
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Artists of the future
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A nationwide talent search in collaboration with 91Èȱ¬ New
Talent finds children for Rachel Portman's new music drama,
while Manchester-based brass students play alongside
members of the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic on Brass Day.
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The Simón
BolÃvar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela makes its Proms debut
under 26-year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel, as do the
Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
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Mark Elder conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great
Britain, and Sir Colin Davis brings the European Union Youth
Orchestra for Proms televised on 91Èȱ¬ Two.
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Gondwana
Voices from Australia, the National Youth Choir of Wales, and
a 250-strong youth choir drawn from around the South of
England are just some of the young voices to be heard in
main Proms concerts in 2007.
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91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 New Generation
artists are prominent: Alexei Ogrintchouk makes his Proms
debut with Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto and Andrew
Kennedy sings twice, including at the Last Night Of The Proms.
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Great events for families
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The 91Èȱ¬ Proms has commissioned Oscar-winning composer
Rachel Portman and poet/novelist Owen Sheers to write a
dramatic musical piece for people of all ages, while the ever-popular
Blue Peter Proms present Bollywood Brass, Honey
Kalaria and Honey’s Dance Academy, alongside the 91Èȱ¬
Philharmonic and favourite children’s presenters Peter Duncan,
Dave Benson Phillips and Gemma Hunt.
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91Èȱ¬ Proms Out+About goes to Brighton for the first time for a two-week
residency before two concerts at the Brighton Dome
aimed at children and their families on 13 June.
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Join in!
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Participation is the key to involving the next generation and
there are more opportunities than ever to join in. A new
initiative for 2007 is the Proms Family Orchestra, which invites
family members – whether mums, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts,
uncles or grandparents – to sit alongside each other and make
music regardless of instrument, age or ability.
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91Èȱ¬ Music Intro,
which offers families £5 seats and insightful, participatory pre-concert
workshops, continues with five events across the
season; and the first Brass Massive, which launches Brass Day,
invites brass players of all ages and abilities to join a two-hour
session and then play a world premiere on the steps of the
Royal Albert Hall.
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Important conductor debuts
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Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner, Susanna Mälkki and
America's Robert Spano are among the conductors making
their Proms debuts in 2007, while soloists Pierre-Laurent
Aimard and HÃ¥kan Hardenberger conduct at the Proms for
the first time.
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Brass massive
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The first-ever Brass Day brings together 200 brass players in a
day which explores brass in all its diversity.
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From traditional
northern brass bands to ancient Uzbek trumpets, from
sagbutts and cornetts to the Fanfare Trumpets of the Band of
the Coldstream Guards and from star soloists such as HÃ¥kan
Hardenberger and David Pyatt, to the youngest enthusiast
who has had a few lessons, the day promises to be the
loudest and most memorable of the season.
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At its heart is an
ambitious collaboration between the 91Èȱ¬ Proms with
Manchester-based forces – including the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic, the Royal Northern College of Music and Salford University –
and players from London and the South East of England.
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Film crazy
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In a bumper year for film at the Proms, in addition to a
concert devoted to the music of Great British films in the year
of BAFTA's 60th anniversary, there are screenings at the Royal
Geographical Society of The Bridge On The River Kwai, Les
choristes, King Lear, Christopher Nupen's two Sibelius films, and
a documentary about the Simón BolÃvar Youth Orchestra of
Venezuela.
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The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score:
Copland and the American Sound is screened at Cadogan Hall –
as is Night Mail (a WH Auden/Benjamin Britten
collaboration), in a Proms Saturday Matinee concert.
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The last night
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Jiřà Bělohlávek conducts the Last Night for the first time and
festivities spill out of the Royal Albert Hall into two new
venues for 91Èȱ¬ Proms in the Park.
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Teeside and Carrickfergus
Castle join the famous celebrations at Hyde Park, Swansea
and Glasgow and 91Èȱ¬ Proms in the Park welcomes a new
three-year sponsorship deal with NS&I.
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On air and in tune
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For the first time concerts from every week of the Proms are
relayed by 91Èȱ¬ Television with first regular weekly broadcasts
on 91Èȱ¬ Four in addition to extensive television coverage of
the season across 91Èȱ¬ One and 91Èȱ¬ Two.
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91Èȱ¬ One
broadcasts themed concerts for the first time. All Proms are
live on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 (except the first Blue Peter Prom: the
second is broadcast live) and available online with on-demand
listening over seven days.
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