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Posted By: JohnK 2014 BBC Proms - 07/18/14 02:01 AM
Tomorrow night in London the opening concert of the 120th year of the BBC Proms takes place. This is the world's greatest classical music festival and over eight weeks many of the world's greatest orchestras and performers visit to take part in the daily concerts. These are listed on the Proms site and all are broadcast live on BBC Radio3. Nearly all are available for seven days afterward on demand as shown on the Schedule for the BBC iPlayer site.

As I have in previous years, I'll likely bring to your attention some of the concerts which I found to be especially enjoyable.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 07/25/14 02:06 AM
Following the intermission of Prom 7, the second half of the concert consisted of a fine performance by the BBC Symphony of the massive Shostakovich Symphony No. 10. This was composed following the death of the USSR's leading music critic, one J. Stalin, who had made life dangerous for Shostakovich. The symphony is considered by many to be his finest and alternates between themes of terror and beauty.

The new BBC Radio 3 policy is to have the concerts now available on demand for 30 days(rather than the previous 7)on the BBC iPlayer and can be heard here .
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 07/29/14 02:57 AM
In the second part of Prom 15, following the intermission, the BBC Symphony played the gorgeously romantic music that Ravel composed for the ballet Daphnis et Chloe. Available here on the BBC 3 iPlayer.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 08/14/14 05:25 AM
Earlier this evening in London Prom 36 presented a concert by the BBC Symphony which was enjoyable from beginning to end. After opening with the Vaughan Williams Overture to The wasps, the first half featured the rarely heard Alwyn Symphony No. 1 and concluded with the beautiful violin passages in the Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending. Following the intermission the Vaughan Williams theme continued with a performance of his composition for the ballet Job, putting to dramatic music the torments Job suffered at the hands of the devil.

Available here on the BBC Radio 3 iPlayer.
Posted By: Murph Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 08/14/14 02:03 PM
Thanks for the updates John. Great items for the headphones as I work.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 08/27/14 01:58 AM
Prom Concert 49 opened with a suite of the beautiful music Ravel composed for Mother Goose(Ma Mere L'oye). There followed some rather unattractive vocal music(with the conductor's wife as soloist)which can be safely bypassed. Following the intermission and more dispensable vocal presentations, the concert concluded with a fine performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's musical tales from the Arabian Nights, Scheherazade. Available here on the iPlayer. Also on that page a very worth-hearing discussion of the Ravel work is available for listening.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 09/01/14 02:11 AM
Prom Concert 56 featured in the first half a fine performance by the London Philharmonic of the very popular and colorful music Holst composed for The Planets. Available on the iPlayer here .

Also on that page is a very brief(about 4 minutes)commentary on The Planets which is worthwhile, although it obviously doesn't go into the detailed analysis which was done on the Prom 49 page above with respect to the Ravel music, and which was very pleasant listening indeed.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 09/06/14 01:32 AM
In the second part of Prom Concert 60 the Royal Philharmonic played all three parts of Respighi's enormously colorful music for his Roman trilogy, i.e., Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Listen here on the iPlayer.
Posted By: JohnK Re: 2014 BBC Proms - 09/09/14 04:20 AM
On Prom Concert 61 the Singapore Symphony made its debut at the proms. Featured after the intermission was the emotionalism of the lush, romantic music Rachmaninoff poured into his great 2nd Symphony. After this lengthy work, the audience also heard an energetic encore, a Walton march.

Available here on the iPlayer, and also worth listening to on that page is a comparative review of recordings of the Rachmaninoff 2nd.
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