BBC Proms 2007
Themes: Shakespeare and Music
Shakespeare has inspired countless composers for centuries and this season's Proms
presents music by more than 25 of them. From large-scale works such as Verdi's Macbeth
and Sibelius's complete incidental music for The Tempest, to rarer and more intimate song
settings by Maconchy and Arne, and from the most famous orchestral works by Tchaikovsky,
Berlioz and Mendelssohn to contemporary works by Oliver Knussen and Thomas Adès, the
season brings together many examples of the masterpieces sparked into existence by
literature's greatest name.
Highlights
- The first Proms Saturday Matinee concert devoted to
Shakespeare settings (14 July).
- Fiftieth anniversary of Bernstein's West Side Story marked
with excerpts in three concerts
(21 and 22 July, and 19 August).
- Verdi's Macbeth from Glyndebourne (24 July).
- Screening of classic 1969 King Lear by legendary Russian
director Grigori Kozintsev introduced by Samuel West
(29 July).
- Shakespeare and All That Jazz from John Dankworth and
Cleo Laine in an evening celebrating these legends of jazz
(8 August).
- Osmo Vänskä and his orchestra from Lahti bring Sibelius's
complete incidental music to The Tempest with an all-Finnish
cast (15 August).
- Two great English tenors – Philip Langridge (13 August) and
Mark Padmore (18 August) – sing Shakespeare settings.
- A rare opportunity to hear Shakespeare-inspired works
from the 18th century by Thomas Arne and Thomas
Linley, Jr (18 August).
- Many of the most famous Shakespeare-inspired works,
including Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream
(14 July) and both Berlioz's (30 July) and Tchaikovsky's
(28 August) Romeo and Juliet.
Listings
Saturday 14 July, 3.00pm Cadogan Hall (PSM 1)
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream – excerpts;
Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing – Suite; Stravinsky:Three
Songs from William Shakespeare; Bridge:There is a willow
grows aslant a brook; Shostakovich: Hamlet – Suite from the
incidental music.
Anna Dennis (mezzo-soprano); speakers to be announced;
Britten Sinfonia/Alexander Shelley
Saturday 21 July & Sunday 22 July, 11.00am
(Proms 10 & 12 – Blue Peter Proms)
Bernstein:West Side Story – Mambo
BBC Philharmonic/Tecwyn Evans
Tuesday 24 July, 7.00pm (Prom 15)
Verdi: Macbeth
Sylvie Valayre (Lady Macbeth);
Andrzej Dobber (Macbeth);
Stanislav Shvets (Banquo);
Peter Auty (Macduff);
Bryan Griffin (Malcolm);
Richard Mosley-Evans
(Doctor/Servant/Herald);
Svetlana Sozdateleva
(Lady-in-waiting); Douglas
Rice-Bowen (Assassin);
Julie Pasturaud (A Lady);
Glyndebourne Chorus;
London Philharmonic
Orchestra/
Vladimir Jurowski
Friday 27 July, 7.30pm (Prom 19)
R. Strauss: Macbeth
Hallé/Mark Elder
Saturday 28 July, 2.00pm (Prom 20 – Brass Day)
Vaughan Williams: Overture 'Henry V'
Grimethorpe Colliery Band/Allan Withington
Sunday 29 July, 6.30pm (Prom 22)
Fauré: Shylock
Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble/Marc Minkowski
Sunday 29 July, 2.00pm
Royal Geographical Society
(Proms Film)
King Lear, dir. Grigori Kozintsev (1969)
Introduced by Samuel West
Monday 30 July, 1.00pm Cadogan Hall (PCM 3)
Vaughan Williams: Willow Song; O Mistress Mine;
Come Away, Death
Polyphony/Stephen Layton
Monday 30 July, 7.30pm (Prom 23)
Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet – excerpts
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sunday 5 August, 4.00pm (Prom 30)
Brahms: Four Songs, Op. 17 – 'Come Away, Death'
BBC Symphony Chorus (women's voices)/Stephen Jackson
Wednesday 8 August, 7.30pm (Prom 35)
From Bards to Blues
Dankworth: Shakespeare and All That Jazz – excerpts;
Ellington: Such Sweet Thunder
Dame Cleo Laine (singer); Soweto Kinch,Tommy Smith
(saxophones); Guy Barker (trumpet); John Dankworth Quintet;
BBC Big Band; BBC Concert Orchestra/John Dankworth
(musical director)
Monday 13 August, 1.00pm Cadogan Hall (PCM 5)
Maconchy: Four Shakespeare Songs
Philip Langridge (tenor); David Owen Norris (piano)
Monday 13 August, 7.30pm (Prom 40)
Weber: Oberon – Overture
Frankfurt Radio Symphony/Paavo Järvi
Wednesday 15 August, 7.30pm (Prom 42)
Sibelius:The Tempest – complete incidental music
(sung in Finnish)
Helena Juntunen (soprano); Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo-soprano);
Juha Hostikka, Petri Lehto (tenors); Ville Rusanen (baritone);
Dominante; Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
Saturday 18 August, 3.00pm Cadogan Hall (PSM 3)
Arne:Two Shakespeare Songs;Thomas Linley, Jr:
Ode on the Spirits of Shakespeare – Overture
Mark Padmore (tenor);
The English Concert/Laurence Cummings
Sunday 19 August, 6.30pm (Prom 48)
Bernstein:West Side Story – Symphonic Dances
Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/
Gustavo Dudamel
Tuesday 28 August, 7.30pm (Prom 59)
Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overtures 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Hamlet'
London Symphony Orchestra/Valery Gergiev
Wednesday 29 August, 10.00pm (Prom 61)
Oliver Knussen: Ophelia Dances
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Oliver Knussen
Wednesday 5 September, 7.30pm (Prom 69)
Beethoven: Overture 'Coriolan'
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly
Saturday 8 September, 7.30pm
(Prom 72 – Last Night Of The Proms)
Dvořák: Overture 'Othello';Thomas Adès:The Storm (opening
scene of 'The Tempest')
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jiří Bělohlávek
Printable version