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The world’s biggest classical music festival is upon us and this year’s programme is truly spectacular. Unsurprisingly, this BBC Proms season has an American focus, 2026 being the 250th anniversary of American independence. But, as ever, variety is the key.
Roam among the 86 concerts on offer from July 17 to Sept 12 (the majority held at the Royal Albert Hall, with 14 performed at venues across the UK and all broadcast on Radio 3) and you could encounter anything from Beethoven symphonies to Elizabethan lute songs, Disney film scores to a celebration of prog rock.
And roaming is exactly what you should do. Why not savour one of the world’s greatest orchestras playing a Mahler symphony, then, for contrast, catch a lone organist playing Bach? You can hear big-name artists such as the Argentine pianist Martha Argerich; look out for such rising stars as young South Korean violinist Sueye Park; give one of 20 brand-new compositions a try; or opt for something more familiar with a concert devoted to music from the James Bond films.
Whatever you do, don’t miss the Last Night, which this year has two knockout guest stars in the shape of Scottish tenor Nicky Spence and Chinese-born American pianist Yuja Wang. It’s an adventure waiting to be enjoyed. If you are prepared to join those Prommers standing in the Albert Hall, you can do so at a knock-down price.
So much choice can be bewildering, which is where I come in. I’ve been going to the Proms for 55 years and must have reviewed more than 600 – so trust me when I tell you that my following favourites promise to deliver something rather special.
Jump to:
- World’s greatest orchestras
- Soloists
- Opera
- Blockbusters
- For intrepid explorers
- Everyone’s favourites
- Proms to make the heart soar
- That special Proms experience
- The Last Night
Read our full insider guide to The Proms
World’s greatest orchestras
The BBC’s five orchestras play in 42 of 86 Proms. They are wonderful, and no disrespect is intended to them by saying that the Proms offers a golden opportunity to hear other great orchestras from around the world. Each one brings its own sound, its own style, and its own repertoire. Here’s a selection of them:
Spanish National Orchestra
For decades Spain’s orchestras lagged behind other European nations, but they’re now surging ahead. The Proms debut of Spain’s national orchestra, which had masterpieces from proper Spanish composers Falla and Rodrigo as well as a French composer who enjoyed pretending to be Spanish (Ravel) is a joy.
Los Angeles Philharmonic, August 11, 6pm; August 12, 7pm
Pizazz and sheer thrill are two qualities the LA Phil is famous for, and there are thrills aplenty in Thomas Adès’s “Inferno”, a homage to the romantic diabolism of Franz Liszt. Before it comes Beethoven’s idyllic Pastoral Symphony. In the orchestra’s second Prom Beethoven’s 7th Symphony is placed alongside Gabriela Ortiz’s fierce take on contemporary Mexican politics.
The Met Orchestra New York, August 27, 6pm
The Proms debut of the Metropolitan Orchestra of New York’s resident orchestra is something to be savoured, as it could rival any of the better-known American orchestras. In the second of their two concerts they’re joined by star soprano Joyce DiDonato for Mahler songs and his 4th Symphony, and the aptly titled Light and Gravity by the late great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, September 3, 7pm
The BPO has always been wonderful, but many say the partnership with chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko, has taken it to even greater heights. Hear them together in two pieces which offer two kinds of sublimity: the luminous and innocent kind of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, where the soloist is Augustin Hadelich, and the intoxicating kind of Scriabin’s Symphony no. 3.
Soloists
If it’s electrifying individual musicians that light your fire, rather than this or that symphony, the Proms offers a feast. There are around 180 outstanding conductors, pianists, violinists, singers, pop guitarists, players of the Turkish bağlama (long-necked lute) etc., listed in the guide, performing mostly with one of the orchestras.
The Proms doesn’t just go for senior figures like conductor Simon Rattle and soprano Joyce DiDonato; it gives a platform to up-and-coming artists. Here’s a selection:
Sueye Park, July 21, 6pm
The 26-year-old South Korean violinist carried off first prize at last year’s Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, so it’s fitting she should be bringing Sibelius’s heroically difficult concerto to this Prom, given by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. “It’s like an ice-blue snowball with a fire burning inside,” she says. I can’t wait.
TV broadcast date to be confirmed
Olivier Latry, July 26, 11am
There’s nothing quite like hearing a master of the French school of organ improvisation spin a dizzying set of variations on a well-known theme. Olivier Latry is a master of the art, and in this Prom he’ll be lavishing his skill on the four notes B-A-C-H (the H is B natural, while the B is actually B flat) as well as playing numerous other great French organ composers’ homages to J S Bach.
Chineke! Orchestra with Angel Blue, August 22, 7.30pm
Europe’s first majority-black and ethnically diverse orchestra is joined by the superb American soprano for music which will suit her generous, burnished voice down to the ground: Samuel Barber’s child’s-eye view of America, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and songs from the Great American Songbook.
Martha Argerich plays Beethoven, September 5, 7pm
You could almost think the famed 84-year-old Argentinian pianist has made a pact with the devil, as her astoundingly athletic artistry seems undimmed. She’ll be playing Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto in this Prom from the Munich Philharmonic, which also contains an overture by feisty Parisian composer Louise Farranc, and Brahms’s last symphony.
TV broadcast date to be confirmed
Opera
The Proms’ ambition to bring the whole of classical music to everybody doesn’t stop with symphonies and concertos. It also stretches to opera, which works better in the Royal Albert Hall than you might think. The big space magnifies the outsize passions of the characters, and those lofty galleries and choir stalls mean a stunning, dramatic entrance by a character can be contrived – by a clever director.
Oberon, August 6, 7pm
The final opera by Carl Maria von Weber, the father of German romantic opera, is one of those neglected masterpieces that cries out for revival. So all praise to the Proms for stepping up to the mark. It’s a fascinating mix of Shakespearian magic and 19th-century Orientalism, and the line-up, including tenor Nicky Spence and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, promises great things.
Ariadne auf Naxos from Glyndebourne, August 19, 7pm
Importing one of Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s productions has become a new Proms tradition, and a very welcome one. This year it’s the turn of Strauss’s complicated but irresistibly lyrical opera about two theatrical troupes forced to share the same stage. With a mouth-watering cast, the London Philharmonic and Robin Ticciati on the podium, what’s not to like?
The Damnation of Faust, August 30, 7pm
A man sitting at a desk, dejected that all his learning has brought him nothing. Cue an uncanny visitor, who offers him excitement…at a price. Berlioz’s dramatisation of the Faust story is notoriously hard to stage, but performed in the Royal Albert Hall’s vast spaces by the French orchestra Les Siècles and a strong cast including Gerald Finley as Mephistopheles, it should be wonderful.
Blockbusters
Nowhere beats the Royal Albert Hall as a space to encounter the big beasts of classical music. It’s not just that the sound takes on the proper grandeur as it reverberates round that enormous space. It’s the fact that you see the audience looking back at you. You’re joined with them in the experience of something immense.
Beethoven’s Ninth
Could anything steal the thunder from Beethoven’s immortal Ninth Symphony? Impossible, you might think. But the BBC Philharmonic’s performance of the Ninth was almost overshadowed by what came before: star cellist Abel Selaocoe performing a brand-new cello concerto by African American composer Jessie Montgomery.
Mahler’s 1st, August 1, 7.30pm
The opening of Mahler’s 1st symphony, which seems to evoke the vast stillness of a forest – complete with distant bird-song – is still a spine-tingling moment, especially when heard in the Royal Albert Hall. In this performance, the Aurora Orchestra will be playing from memory, which will add high-wire tension to the occasion.
Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, August 15, 7.30pm
If ever there was a piece that cried out for the vast space of the Albert Hall, it’s Berlioz’s huge Requiem. As well as a vast orchestra and choir (in this case the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and BBC Chorus) there’ll be four separate brass groups above in the galleries, to summon up the terrors of the Last Judgement. It’s sure to be awe-inspiring.
Bach: Mass in B minor, September 10, 7pm
To include a performance of Bach’s great Mass by a combination of modest-sized Baroque orchestra and chorus together with five soloists in the category “blockbuster” might seem a failure of decorum to some. But the sounds will become grand in that space, and our emotions will expand with them.
For intrepid explorers
Proms co-founder Robert Newman’s imperious declaration that he was going to “create a public for classical and modern music” wouldn’t go down well now. Too elitist. But on the quiet Proms directors still hope Proms audiences can be tempted to boldly go where they’ve never gone before. Here are some of what Proms co-founder Henry Wood called “novelties” are on offer this season.
BBC Symphony Orchestra July 22, 7pm
The great, reclusive and fiercely purist composer György Kurtág this year turns 100, and among the Proms tributes is this performance of his huge but eerily quiet Stele, representing a wounded soldier on the battlefield who looks for solace in the blue sky. Alongside it is a different sort of vastness: Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
Crippled Symmetry, July 24, 7pm, Glass International Centre of Music, Gateshead
Just two members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia plus the orchestra’s chief conductor at the piano will be gathered on the stage of the Glasshouse Centre for this late masterpiece by Morton Feldman – born 100 years ago. He loved the irregular patterns of hand-woven Turkish rugs, and evokes them in slowly shifting, infinitely quiet sounds.
Kafka Fragments, August 9, 6pm, Bristol Beacon
A very different, vanishingly delicate side of György Kurtág can be heard in this set of songs for soprano and violin. Faint echoes of Bach and Bartók and Schumann flit through gnomic thoughts of Franz Kafka. They’re sung here by Finnish soprano Anu Komsi, accompanied by her husband and Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo.
BBC Young Composer Competition, August 30, 4.30pm, Royal College of Music, London
Hearing a brand-new piece at the Proms always gives a tingle of excitement, but there’s a special thrill in hearing music by young talents still in the bud. In this Prom, pieces by six recent winners of the BBC Young Composer Competition will be performed. It’s a chance to hear how Gen Z thinks musically.
Freiburg Baroque plays Schumann with Rattle, September 7, 7pm
Why does listening to Schumann count as intrepid exploration, you might be thinking? Because he’s one of those composers who never ceases to be puzzling, and these performances in the dusky colours of Freiburg Baroque under Simon Rattle is bound to bring out his oddity. Plus they’re playing two pieces one rarely hears, the Violin Concerto and Genoveva Overture, as well as the 2nd Symphony.
Everyone’s favourites
The Proms is so stuffed with unfamiliar pieces by composers with unpronounceable names that novice listeners could give up, thinking “this festival isn’t for me”. They shouldn’t be afraid. The Proms has never been snobbish about the pieces everyone loves. Here are a few of them.
Kavakos plays Tchaikovsky, August 2, 7.30pm
Leonidas Kavakos is one of the world’s great violinists, with an imperious yet sweet tone just made for romantic concertos. Which makes it a fair bet that this performance of Tchaikovsky’s much-loved violin concerto will be wonderful. As a bonus there’s a brand-new piece from British 30-something composer Dani Howard, and Scriabin’s 2nd Symphony.
TV broadcast date to be confirmed
Rachmaninov: ‘Paganini Variations’, August 3, 7pm
If the previous Prom hasn’t sated your appetite for Russian romanticism, head back to the Albert Hall the next day for Rachmaninov’s immortal Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. When the big tune comes round you’ll feel the 5,000 people around you turn to emotional jelly (though the performance of Shostakovich’s brooding 11th Symphony after the interval will soon restore their backbone).
Berlin Philharmonic plays Elgar and Tchaikovsky, September 2, 6.30pm
There are not one but two all-time favourites in the first of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s concerts. First comes Elgar’s Enigma Variations, with the famous “Nimrod” Variation that is best when not milked for every drop of emotion (we can rely on conductor Kirill Petrenko to get that right). Then comes Tchaikovsky’s “Fate” Symphony, the 4th.
Dvořák: New World Symphony, September 6, 7.30pm
Again there are two favourites in this Prom from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. There’s Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which is thrilling to children of all ages, and then, after a brand-new concerto from jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock and the interval comes what could be the world’s favourite symphony, Dvořák’s New World Symphony.
TV broadcast date to be confirmed
Proms to make the heart soar
A tricky category, because the heart is such an unpredictable organ. What makes one person’s heart soar will make another’s feel pained, and leave another unmoved. And let’s face it, all music that’s any good should affect it in some way. But these seem especially likely to lead to that soaring feeling.
Afterlife: Visions of the Beyond, July 23, 7.30pm
You’d better take the smelling salts to this Prom, as it’s likely to stimulate the heart more than once. First comes mystical music from Lili Boulanger and Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, then comes an ascent to heaven, as portrayed in Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension, and finally there’s the thudding heartbeat followed by transcendence of Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration.
John Wilson, July 24, 7.30pm
There are many fine conductors appearing at this year’s Proms, but none who’ve established such a hold on the affections of Proms audiences as the matinée-idol from Gateshead, John Wilson. In this Prom he leads the Sinfonia of London in a sumptuous heart-on-sleeve programme which includes all three of Respighi’s musical portraits of Rome.
Elgar: Symphony no. 1, July 29, 7pm
Elgar’s 1st Symphony begins in a mood of noble understatement, and yet there’s something about that solemn tread that stirs deep feeling. When that same melody recurs at the end, now in unbuttoned glory, the effect is overwhelming.
Broadcast on BBC Four on July 31, 7pm
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia and Symphony no. 9, September 4, 7pm
If you’re someone whose heart soars when you hear something quintessentially English, this could be the Prom for you. It begins with Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which seems to transport the listener to an English meadow and a cathedral at once. His 9th symphony is a world away – by the time he composed it he’d seen two world wars – but is also deeply moving.
That special Proms experience
Vast yet intimate, uproarious yet serious – it’s this marriage of opposites that gives the Proms their very British quality. Some events embody that special Proms spirit with particular vividness, including these.
Prog Rock: a Fanfare for the Common Man
What would “prog rock” sound like… without the rock? That was the question underlying this peculiar yet entertaining concert as Prog went to the Proms. What was once both lauded and derided as Britain’s most adventurous, pretentious and all-encompassing highbrow popular music genre was rendered as a gentle evening of nostalgic easy listening, writes Neil McCormick
Black Dyke Band
There’s no better venue than the Royal Albert Hall to show off the glory of brass instruments, which is why the National Brass Band Championships have been held there every year since 1945. The tremendous Black Dyke Band has won top prize 24 times, and this concert of show-stopping classic and film soundtracks will surely show why.
Late Night Baroque, July 21, 10.15pm
This concert from the brilliant young Jupiter Ensemble brings the intimacy of a Baroque drawing room to the Albert Hall, with a 400th anniversary tribute to the great Elizabethan master of melancholy John Dowland, alongside music by Purcell and Handel.
Miles Davis Centenary, August 20, 7pm
Among the brilliant jazz musicians appearing at this tribute to the great pioneer of cool jazz and jazz-rock is Ambrose Akinmusire, for my money the best jazz trumpeter around. Together with a starry jazz trio and the BBC Concert Orchestra he’ll be playing music that shows Davis in dialogue with other composers including Rodrigo and Gershwin, and with his great collaborator Bill Evans.
TV broadcast date to be confirmed
Altın Gün, August 28, 7.30pm
The Proms can embrace just about anything musically – even a Dutch-Turkish psychedelic folk-rock band, which is what Altın Gün is. No, I didn’t know such a thing existed either, but I learn from the Proms brochure that the band’s recent “Anatolian rock” album Garip is a homage to the great Turkish folk musician Neşet Ertaş. Every year the Proms improves my musical education.
The Last Night
The Proms office is playing its Last Night Card very close to its chest. All we know for now is that flamboyantly brilliant Chinese/American pianist Yuja Wang will be one of the star guests, alongside equally brilliant Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. Apart from that, all the favourites including Rule, Britannia! will be present and correct. There will undoubtedly be a brand-new piece or two, and some unknown gems, but we’ll have to wait to discover what they are. Getting tickets for the Last Night is a major operation in itself. Please refer to our guide to see how.
Broadcast live, with the first part on BBC Two and the second part on BBC One
The venue for the above is the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London (royalalberthall.com), unless otherwise stated. General booking for all Albert Hall proms opens on May 16. Tickets for other events across the UK will be available from April 21
