BBC Proms 2017
BBC FOUR, 7.30PM AND 10.00PM
Tonight’s double visit to the Proms shows off just what an eclectic celebration of great music, and great musicians, the event has become. We open with a tribute, on the 50th anniversary of his death, to one of the names most identified with the season over its 122-year history: Malcolm Sargent, composer, conductor and one of the most important figures in 20th-century British music, who was also chief conductor at the Proms for over two decades.
The concert, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Andrew Davis, recreates Sargent’s 500th Prom from 1966. It features Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, with soloist Beatrice Rana, and pieces particularly associated with Sargent by Walton, Holst, Delius and Britten. Later, on a less conventional note, Jarvis Cocker takes to the stage at 10.00pm with American singer-songwriter John Grant, guitarist Richard Hawley and the Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfor, together with the popular Heritage Orchestra under conductor Jules Buckley, for a joyful homage to the musical genius of American singersongwriter Scott Walker. Particular emphasis is placed on his hugely influential early work from the late Sixties. Gerard O’donovan