Prom 8: Impressions of Spain (Part 1)

Live at the BBC Proms: Josep Pons conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Debussy, Ravel, and Falla, and are joined by violinist María Dueñas in Lalo's Symphonie espagnole.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Manuel de Falla: La vida breve – Interlude and Dance
Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21

c. 8.25
INTERVAL: Tasmin Little meets soloist Maria Dueñas, and in a candid conversation they share experiences about their respective music careers.

c. 8.45 Part 2
Claude Debussy: Images – Ibéria
Maurice Ravel: Boléro

María Dueñas (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Josep Pons (conductor)

Josep Pons and the BBC Symphony Orchestra present a Spanish-themed Prom with a French accent. Debussy and Ravel paint Spain in their own distinctive colours: Ravel with the raw heat and insistent thrum of his Boléro and Debussy in the vivid musical vignettes of Ibéria. Meanwhile Spanish violinist María Dueñas – a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and winner of the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition – is the soloist in Édouard Lalo’s most famous work, the Symphonie espagnole, which marks the French Romantic composer’s 200th anniversary. The concert opens in Andalusia, with music from Falla’s tragic opera La vida breve, set in sun-soaked Granada.