What's On / Proms by Day
WEDNESDAY 23 JULY
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5.15pm - 6.00pm: Proms Literary Festival Matthew Sweet assesses the cultural events of the year 1958.
Prom 9: BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Date Wednesday 23 July 2008
- Time 7.00pm - c10.05pm
- Venue Royal Albert Hall
- Tickets £6-£35 price band A or Prom for £5
- Broadcast Live on BBC Radio 3. Available as audio on demand for the following week.
A Proms reprise of a programme first given in 1958, featuring two German composers who managed to retain Classical poise in the face of burgeoning Romanticism. Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphony celebrates the sounds and colours of Italy, while Brahms's Second is the most 'pastoral' of his symphonies, a work of carefree high spirits.
In between comes the colossal Second Piano Concerto with which Brahms blurs the boundaries between symphony and concerto; the soloist is Lars Vogt, whose reputation is similarly built on a mastery of the Classical repertoire.
Mendelssohn's spirited curtain-raiser is based on the Victor Hugo play in which the commoner Ruy Blas is forced to dishonour the Queen of Spain by winning her affections.
- Mendelssohn Overture - Ruy Blas (8 mins)
- Mendelssohn Symphony No.4 in A major, 'Italian' (28 mins)
- Interval
- Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major (48 mins)
- Interval
- Brahms Symphony No.2 in D major (40 mins)
Lars Vogt piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek conductor
BBC Radio 3
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