Although the Proms has lasted 125 consecutive seasons without pause, this year "The World's Greatest Classical Music Festival" has had to change, due to the virus. Usually many of the world's finest orchestras and performers come to London for 8 weeks of daily concerts. For 2020 there'll be 6 weeks of "Best of" broadcasts from the archives as much as 40 years back, with the last 2 weeks having limited live performances.

The concerts are heard when broadcast and for 30 days afterward on the BBC iplayer here . The Proms site www.bbc.co.uk/proms has a complete listing of the concerts under "What's On" .

As in previous years, occasionally some concerts may be brought to your attention.

You still with M22s? Curious if you tried the M5s for classical.

HI, Trevor. Sure, after 18 years with about 90,000 hours of play(and yes, still waiting for "speaker break-in")the M22s still fit my need for enjoying classical music. When I bought them the major factor was Canada's excellent NRC measurements as reported on SoundStage. This hasn't changed. I note that the NRC tested the M5s a couple years ago with good results, but other than a bit stronger low bass, which wouldn't be compelling since I use the EP500 sub, there isn't anything which calls for a switch. The M22s, with two drivers handling the all-important mid-range frequencies, continue their excellence.

Not even a push for updated wood veneer versions John?
LOL
See my other thread on the slope i'm going down.
18 years with M60 Ti, EP350, VP150 and QS8s.
Moving to EP500, VP180 and QS10s. It just almost makes sense to replace the others and order a wood finish so they're all the exact same no?

Awesome. 15 years of use daily is a crazy value if they still sound good.

For the Prom taking place on July 30, 2004 the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra journeyed to London with its new conductor at that time, the late Mariss Jansons. A fine program of Dvorak and Strauss works was played, opening with one of my favorite Dvorak Symphonies, the melodious 8th.

After a brief discussion on the life of maestro Jansons(in lieu of the original intermission feature)the second half featured Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben"(A Hero's Life)in which he musically portrayed tender and vigorous incidents in the life of a "hero", which some critics suggested Strauss meant himself.

The concert concluded with two appropriate encores, the Dvorak Slavonic Dance No.2 and excerpts from Strauss's suite of music from his opera "Der Rosenkavalier". The concert can be heard on the BBC iplayer here and apparently this is for more than the typical 30 days.

Thanks John
Great content once again.

Classical isn't really my bag. Though the quality and content of the BBC is awesome. Typically my self I listen to University Radio {All genres} as long as nothing top 40.

Surprisingly these are very enjoyable. For a nonclassical person. My ADA1250 and M80 bring out lots of details.

For a July 2007 Prom the BBC Philharmonic featured the popular work for piano and orchestra by Rachmaninoff, "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"in the first half. Following that the massive and very colorful Gliere 3rd Symphony, "Ilya Muromets" musically told the story from Russian folklore of Ilya, a crippled peasant's son who was visited by heavenly messengers who give him superhuman powers to become a great hero by defeating the invading pagan hoards. The music depicts his military and romantic exploits. including defeating entire armies with just a handful of companions.

Available https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ldb3 on the iplayer.

There are some very nice works on the BBC but unfortunately, they are very poorly recorded or produced. All I hear on my systems is a cloud of sound in the middle with tendrils towards the inside of my speakers. There is no soundstage to speak of, no width outside the speaker boundaries, no depth or imaging.

Very poor midrange ... midrange is where the music lives.

In September of 2014 the superb Berlin Philharmonic visited the Proms and presented an outstanding concert. The first half consisted of one of my top favorites in all of music, the gorgeous melodies of Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances".

After some interesting comments by one of the players from the 2014 concert reflecting on the experience, the second half featured a complete performance of the ground-breaking music Stravinsky composed for "The Firebird" . Following thunderous applause for Firebird, an encore of Puccini's music for "Manon Lescaut" ended the concert.

On the iplayer here .

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra came to the Proms in August of 2012 for a concert devoted entirely to the music of the greatest English symphonic composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Three symphonies were played, the vigorous and at times violent 4th and 6th book-ending the rather gentle and beautiful 5th.

The iplayer here .

For its 2011 Proms appearance the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performed an all-French program. It opened with the beautiful Debussy Prelude a l'pres-midi d'un faune . There followed a Dutilleux cello concerto that was of only occasional interest and then the hypnotic rhythms of the Ravel Bolero.

The major work was a performance of the complete score of the music Ravel composed for the ballet Daphnis et Chloe. Considered by many to be his masterpiece, it alternates passages of beauty and excitement. Here on the iplayer.

The Philharmonia Orchestra came to the Proms a few days ago for a llive performance with some distancing of the players and no audience. Hearing the concert in the Royal Albert Hall with it being nearly empty instead of having 5,000 audience members did make for a somewhat more spacious acoustic.

The concert opened with Ravel's colorful Le Tombeau de Couperin. They followed with a vigorous performance of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 .

The major work was Mozart's final symphony(before his death at 35)the number 41(Jupiter)often considered to be his finest. A brief encore of the Sibelius Valse Triste., which had been picked by vote of the BBC radio audience, concluded the concert.

On the iPlayer .