Every day for the rest of the summer, the world’s oldest and largest music festival — the BBC Proms — is offering free broadcasts for the 97th year. Major concerts originate from London’s Royal Albert Hall, Bristol, Nottingham, and Gateshead, chamber music from Aberdeen, Belfast, and Newport.
The 2024 Proms can be heard daily on BBC-3; most concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. British Summer Time (11:30 a.m. Pacific).
Over eight weeks, from July 19 through Sept. 14, the Proms will feature over 3,000 musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Víkingur Ólafsson, Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Sam Smith, Florence Welch, Yunchan Lim, and Sheku, Braimah, and Isata Kanneh-Mason.
The concert series began as the Promenades in 1838 — outdoor concerts in London’s gardens — with Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, as one of its directors. The Proms took its present form in 1895 and was then taken over by the BBC, which began these broadcasts in 1927.
For one season during the pandemic, the Proms consisted of recorded concerts only, and soon after the return to the Royal Albert Hall — opened by Queen Victoria in 1871 — audiences suffered through Europe’s worst heat wave, but the show went on. This summer is likely to test audiences as well.
In addition to the live broadcasts, each concert is recorded, available from the BBC-3 website for up to 11 months after the performance in some cases.
A few highlights of the season:
Prom 14 (July 29) — Paavo Järvi conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra:
Erkki-Sven Tüür, Aditus
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 (with soloist Yunchan Lim)
Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 1 (1877 Linz version, ed. Leopold Nowak)
Prom 34 (Aug. 14) — “21st-Century Soundtracks,” Robert Ames conducting the London Contemporary Orchestra:
Music by Volker Bertelmann, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Anna Meredith, Son Lux, Colin Stetson, Tamar-kali Shirley, and Max Richter
Prom 45 (Aug. 24) — Dalia Stasevska conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra:
Julius Eastman, Symphony No. 2 (“The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend’s Love for the Beloved”)
Gustav Mahler, Rückert-Lieder (with mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton)
Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 5
Prom 50 (Aug. 28) — Jakub Hrůša conducting the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonic Choir:
Vítězslava Kaprálová, Military Sinfonietta
Antonín Dvořák, Piano Concerto (with soloist Mao Fujita)
Leoš Janáček, Glagolitic Mass (with soprano Corinne Winters, mezzo-soprano Bella Adamova, tenor David Butt Philip, and bass Brindley Sherratt)
Prom 54 (Aug. 31) — “Beethoven for Three” with Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma:
Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral,” arr. Shai Wosner)
Beethoven, Piano Trio in B-flat Major (“Archduke”)
