BBC Proms 2020 live line-up announced

The last fortnight of this year's BBC Proms will be taking place in the Royal Albert Hall with no audience, with all performances broadcast live on the Royal Albert Hall's website

Published: August 12, 2020 at 4:12 pm

The Royal Albert Hall has announced the line-up for the live performances of this year's BBC Proms. All concerts will be broadcast live via the Royal Albert Hall website and on BBC Radio 3, but there will be no live audience.

The fortnight of live performances comes after two months of archive Proms broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four. They will take place from Friday 28 August to Saturday 12 September for the Last Night of the Proms.

Featured artists include brother-and-sister duo, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, who have a programme of Beethoven, Barber, Bridge and Rachmaninov prepared. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida joins the London Symphony, while Nicola Benedetti will perform alongside fellow violinist Alina Ibragimova and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

New works have been commissioned for Proms premieres by Thomas Adès, Hannah Kendall, Aziza Sadikova, Jay Capperauld, Gavin Higgins and Richard Ayres.

This year's Last Night soloist is South African soprano Golda Schultz. She will be joining the BBC Symphony Orchestra - as per the Last Night traditions - and conductor Dalia Stasevska, who becomes the second woman in history to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, following American conductor Marin Alsop in 2013.

There will also be Proms held elsewhere in the UK, including a Prom at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, featuring soprano Natalya Romaniw and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under its new conductor Ryan Bancroft; City Halls, Glasgow, for a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto by Stephen Hough; and Salford Quays, where the BBC Philharmonic is led by its new conductor Omer Meir Wellber and joined by tenor Allan Clayton.

Stasevska currently holds the role of principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a position she took on last year, alongside fellow Finn, Sakari Oramo, who has been principal conductor of the orchestra since 2013.

The full programme is listed below:

Prom: Friday 28 August at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Hannah Kendall: Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama (BBC commission, world premiere) Eric Whitacre: Sleep Aaron Copland: Quiet City Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’

BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo

Prom: Saturday 29 August at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Gioachino Rossini: The Thieving Magpie – overture (arr. Jonathan Scott) Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana – Intermezzo (arr. Jonathan Scott) Paul Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (arr. Jonathan Scott) Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, ‘Organ’ (arr. Jonathan Scott)

Jonathan Scott (organ)

Prom: Sunday 30 August at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Thomas Adès: Dawn (BBC commission: world premiere) Edward Elgar: Introduction and Allegro Giovanni Gabrieli: Sacrae symphoniae (1597) – Canzon septimi et octavi toni a 12 (arr. Eric Crees) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘quasi una fantasia’ (‘Moonlight’) – 1st movement György Kurtág: … quasi una fantasia … Giovanni Gabrieli: Sacrae symphoniae (1597) – Canzon noni toni a 12 (arr. Eric Crees) Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D major 35’

Mitsuko Uchida (piano), London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle

Prom: Sunday 31 August at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Viennese Night Lehar: Overture to Merry Widow Oscar Straus: Chocolate Soldier duet Lehar: Meine lippen sie Küssen so heiss Kalman: Wenn es Abend Wir (Gruss mir mein Wien) Johann Strauss: Overture to Die Fledermaus Lehar: Paganini – Prelude and Violin Solo Heuberger: Im Chamber separée (Opera Ball) Lehar: Gold and Silver Waltz Lehar: Es lebt eine Vilja (The Merry Widow) Lehar: You are my Heart's Delight (Land of Smiles) Johann Strauss: Pizzicato Polka

Sophie Bevan (soprano), Robert Murray (tenor), BBC Concert Orchestra/Bramwell Tovey

Prom: Tuesday 1 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

A programme of contemporary classical works

London Sinfonietta

Prom: Wednesday 2 September at Salford Quays, Salford

Josef Haydn: Philemon und Baucis – overture Aziza Sadikova: Marionettes (BBC commission: world premiere) Benjamin Britten: Nocturne Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 80 in D minor

Allan Clayton (tenor), BBC Philharmonic/Omer Meir Wellber

Prom: Thursday 3 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor for two violins, RV 514 George Frideric Handel: Concerto grosso in B flat major, Op. 3 No. 2 Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in D major for two violins, RV 513 George Frideric Handel: Radamisto – Passacaglia Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor for two oboes, RV 536 Charles Avison: Concerto grosso No. 5 in D minor (after Scarlatti) Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto in D minor for two violins, BWV 1043

Nicola Benedetti (violin), Alina Ibragimova (violin), Alexandra Bellamy (oboe), Katharina Spreckelsen (oboe), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Jonathan Cohen (harpsichord)

Prom: Friday 4 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Anoushka Shankar (sitar), Gold Panda (live electronics), Manu Delago (percussion), Britten Sinfonia/Jules Buckley

Prom: Saturday 5 September at City Halls, Glasgow

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19 Jay Capperauld: Circadian Refrains (172 Days Until Dawn) (BBC commission: world premiere) Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen

Stephen Hough (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard

Prom: Sunday 6 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Laura Marling (singer), 12 Ensemble

Prom: Tuesday 8 September at Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Bohuslav Martinů: Jazz Suite John Adams: Chamber Symphony Gavin Higgins: new work (BBC commission: world premiere) Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring

Natalya Romaniw (soprano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Ryan Bancroft

Prom: Wednesday 9 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Maurice Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin Dmitry Shostakovich: Concerto for piano, trumpet and strings (Piano Concerto No. 1) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, ‘Jupiter’

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Jason Evans (trumpet), Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen

Prom: Thursday 10 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Richard Ayres: No. 52 (Three pieces about Ludwig van Beethoven: dreaming, hearing loss and saying goodbye) (BBC co-commission: world premiere) Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major

Tom Service (presenter), Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon

Prom: Friday 11 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 102 No. 1 Samuel Barber: Cello Sonata Frank Bridge: Mélodie Sergey Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata in G minor

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)

Last Night of the Proms: Saturday 12 September at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Golda Schultz (soprano), BBC Symphony Orchestra/Dalia Stasevska

Virtual audiences can sign up to watch the Proms performances online here, but no in-person audiences will be allowed.

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