Proms 2025 Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

All swagger, originality and ‘orgiastic power’, one of the great 20th-century symphonies, Walton’s Symphony No. 1, put the composer on the map – as the heir to both Elgar and Sibelius. Ravel’s jazz-infused, darkly atmospheric Piano Concerto for the Left Hand also breaks new ground: only one hand plays, though the ear hears all the richness of two. Nicholas McCarthy – the world’s only professional one-handed concert pianist – makes his Proms debut. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra opens its first Prom under new Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth with Shostakovich’s jovial Suite for Variety Orchestra, packed with tunes from the composer’s music for ballet, theatre and cinema.

Broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer this season