What's On / Proms by Day

The sea dominates the first half of this BBC NOW Prom. A pupil of Vaughan Williams, Grace Williams showed a debt in her musical language to her teacher (with perhaps a sideways glance at Elgar).

Her Sea Sketches, a five-movement work for strings, dates from the Second World War and makes a perfect companion to Elgar's glorious settings of his wife's poetry in Sea Pictures - songs of an almost rapturous abandon, sung tonight by former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Christine Rice.

Tadaaki Otaka, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales's Conductor Laureate, closes the concert with Tchaikovsky's last symphony, a work premiered just nine days before the death of the composer, who claimed: 'Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into it.'

A late-night opportunity to hear one of the most luminous chamber works of the 20th century.

Olivier Messiaen was a prisoner of war in a German camp, Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz (now Zgorzelec, Poland), and - encountering a clarinettist, violinist and cellist there - he set about writing a work for them, with himself in mind as pianist.

The resulting Quartet for the End of Time was first heard on 15 January 1941 before a huge audience of prisoners and prison guards. 'Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension,' Messiaen later said.

Four of today's finest young musicians come together to perform this extraordinary work. Martin Fröst returns for his second performance of the season, having performed Anders Hillborg's clarinet concerto in Prom 37.