Notable anniversaries and birthdays
Steve Reich, 75 this year, joins in for a Late Night Prom of his music
In the 100th anniversary year of his death, and continuing last year's celebrations of his birth, five of Mahler's symphonies are performed. Gustavo Dudamel makes a welcome return to the Proms with the Simón BolÃvar Symphony Orchestra, no longer a youth orchestra, for their first appearance since their sensational Proms debut in 2007. Here they perform Mahler's gigantic Resurrection Symphony (). The Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer present Symphony No. 1 (), giving audiences the rare opportunity to hear the originally included Blumine intermezzo. Mahler works are also performed by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra () and 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra ( & ).
Australian Percy Grainger, who died 50 years ago this year, is remembered in two key Proms on . His In A Nutshell suite receives its first outing at the Proms under Sir Andrew Davis, while a Late Night Prom is dedicated entirely to Grainger and the folk music which so inspired him. It features the Northern Sinfonia, Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell, her folk band and the distinguished English folk singer June Tabor.
The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips return with the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria in a Late Night Prom, 400 years to the month since his death in 1611. The evening includes the first 91Èȱ¬ Proms performance of Victoria's six-voice Requiem, widely considered to be the Spanish composer's masterpiece ().
In his centenary year, film-music composer Bernard Herrmann's famous music for Hitchcock's classic Psycho, and more, can be heard in the Film Music Prom (), while the same anniversary for jazz great Stan Kenton sees a Late Night Prom dedicated to his music (), featuring jazz singer and Radio 3 presenter Claire Martin and the 91Èȱ¬ Big Band.
The 75th birthdays of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Steve Reich are also celebrated this season. A Proms Saturday Matinee given by the London Sinfonietta features works by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and by composers he admires (), while Steve Reich, one of the founding fathers of American Minimalism, performs with Synergy Vocals and Ensemble Modern in a Late Night Prom featuring three of his seminal works of the Seventies and Eighties: Clapping Music, Electric Counterpoint and Music For 18 Musicians ().
