Pioneers of Sound

In 2020, BBC Radio 3 is bringing together musical greats, from the past and the present, in one extraordinary Proms season. Radio 3 is broadcasting the best of four decades of unmissable Proms concerts. Tonight's concert takes a recent glance back to a Prom from just a few years ago, celebrating some of the great pioneers in electronic music. Daphne Oram’s visionary Still Point fills the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in the premiere of a revised realisation. Composed in 1949 – almost a decade before Oram co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop – the piece is thought to be the first to combine a live orchestra with live electronic manipulations, here played via turntables.

Still Point forms the centrepiece of a late-night sonic exploration that features works by Delia Derbyshire – another Radiophonic Workshop pioneer, who achieved cult status for her electronic arrangement of the Doctor Who TV theme – as well as new works inspired by the Radiophonic legacy.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Delia Derbyshire: The Delian Mode
CHAINES: Knockturning (world premiere of new arrangement for orchestra)
Laurie Spiegel: Only Night Thoughts (world premiere)
Suzanne Ciani: Improvisation on Four Sequences
Daphne Oram: Still Point (world premiere of revised version)

Shiva Feshareki (turntables/electronics)
James Bulley (live mix/electronics)
Suzanne Ciani (synthesiser)
CHAINES (live electronics)
London Contemporary Orchestra
Robert Ames (conductor)

(From the BBC Proms 2018, 23 July)