This year’s program BBC Proms was announced, featuring a full eight-week concert season, with Late Night Proms and a series of Proms taking place across the country.
Events include celebrations of William Vaughans 150th anniversary spanned the entire season, along with concerts to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee and a very significant anniversary for the BBC itself.
Vaughan Williams will be honored with performances by his Fantasy on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Sea Symphony, Oboe Concerto and Tuba Concerto among other works. In honor of the Platinum Jubilee, a special ball will feature music for royal occasions from composers such as Purcell, Coates, Bliss, Handel and Britten.
Public service broadcasting also has a ball for itself this year, with a large-scale new commission marking 100 years since the BBC was founded.
2022 will also see the return of international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmonic conducted by Kirill Petrenko, the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Australian World Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta.
The Proms also welcomes the newly formed Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as part of a European and American tour this summer. Brought together by the Metropolitan Opera of New York and the Polish National Opera, and conducted by Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, the orchestra includes recently refugee Ukrainian musicians, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and some of the best musicians from Kviv, Liviv, Kharkiv, Odessa and elsewhere in Ukraine.
This year First night of the balls presents a performance of Verdi’s Requiem of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of their principal conductor Sakari Oramo, with soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha as soloists and tenor Tommaso’s Freddie.
As in pre-pandemic times, the Proms will aim beyond the Royal Albert Hall with the Proms to… the series. This year concerts take place at Battersea Arts Centre, Sage Gateshead, Truro, St George’s Bristol, Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall in Cardiff, St George’s Liverpool, Bradshaw Hall in Birmingham and the Royal Conservatory Scotland in Glasgow. Additionally, as part of a collaboration between the Proms and ENO, Printworks London will host an opera performance juxtaposing works by Philip Glass and Handel.
After a two-year hiatus, Late Night Proms will return this year, with concerts including a Radio 1 Relax at the Proms, a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and an appearance by The Sixteen.
Contemporary composers will be well represented this year, with world premieres from Sally Beamish, Anna Thorvaldsdottir Archer, Matthew Kaner, Philip Glass, Holder Gudnadottir, James B Wilson, Gavin Higgins, Betsy Jolas, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and the virtuoso jazz saxophonist Norwegian Marius Néset.
A special part of the program will celebrate composer and member of the women’s suffrage movement Ethel Smyth, with performances of her opera ‘The Wreckers’, her Double Concerto for Horn and Violin, her Mass in D and her Piano Trio.
Other birthdays celebrated in the Proms this year include those of Caesar Frank (200th) Iannis Xenakis (100th) and Sergei Diaghilev (100th).
BBC Symphony Orchestra returns under Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska for the The last night of the ballsin a performance featuring soprano Lise Davidsen and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
As always, you can catch every Prom this year live on Radio BBC 3 and listen again later BBC Sounds. 21 concerts will be shown on BBC TV and iPlayer.
To attend the Proms in person, seated tickets will be available from £8.50 for those under 18 and Promming tickets will be on sale from £6. A total of 96,000 tickets will be available for less than £20. All tickets are on sale at Saturday, May 21, 2022.
This year’s season will run from Friday July 15 to Saturday September 10.
