BBC Proms to return as ‘we know and love’ it

THE BBC Proms’ forthcoming season will see the event back as “we know and love” it after the music world went through a “bumpy time” following the pandemic, the director has said.

This year’s expansive 90-concert programme features debut performances from Florence Welch and Sam Smith, a disco night and a host of international orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic and the West-eastern Divan.

The Proms will pay tribute to the late Sir Andrew Davis, a joyful conductor who has led the Last Night concert numerous times and was due to perform this summer before his death from leukaemia aged 80 earlier this month.

Speaking to BBC Radio 3 on the Proms programme launch day, BBC Proms director David Pickard said: “I think people don’t remember now just how long it was for the performing arts world to come out of Covid because we still had distancing for a while.

“We planned the 2021 Proms in distancing, with distanced orchestras. And the thing of course that was very slow to come back was international travel.

“So it’s no wonder that we’ve had fewer international orchestras in the past, and they of course have also had to slightly build their war chest to be able to afford to come (and) tour in Europe.

“So I’m just so thrilled that we feel like this is the Proms that we know and love after a bit of a bumpy time for all of us in the classical music world.”

Outside of London, Gateshead will host a weekend-long residency and a new Proms residency will launch in venues across Nottingham as well as at the newly opened Bristol Beacon.

Other Proms will take place across the UK, in Belfast, Aberdeen and Newport.