This year’s Proms season has been announced in the last few days, and alongside all the standard fare, there’s the usual small smattering of contemporary music to get mildly excited about. Scanning through the programme, the most immediate thing that leapt out was familiarity, even predictability, the festival in general opting for composers whose music has been previously featured at the Proms (in some cases many times), rather than exploring relatively unknown names. i guess by this stage that’s not something that should take anyone by surprise – nor indeed the very small amount of new music included. If the Proms is anything, it’s 100% safe. Reflecting on this year’s season announcement, and remembering the recent death of Harrison Birtwistle, his famous 1995 Last Night work Panic now seems such a terribly long time ago. It would be wonderful if James B. Wilson’s Last Night opener might have a similarly scandalous effect, though it’s probably a bad idea to get too many hopes up about that.
Nonetheless, it’s nice to see a very small-scale acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Xenakis’ birth, with his chamber works Allegro molto, Akea and À r. (Hommage à Ravel) being performed at a remote Prom in Belfast, in addition to the orchestral Jonchaies, and mini percussion concerto O-Mega. Also, the prospect of Jennifer Walshe’s 2019 kind-of-sort-of-symphony The Site of an Investigation at the Proms is a nice surprise and something to look forward to. As for the rest, judge for yourselves; in the the following list, * = UK première, † = European première and ** = world première.
(updated 17 July)
16 July
18 July
James MacMillan – Viola Concerto
20 July
21 July
22 July
Judith Weir – I love all beauteous things
Cheryl Frances-Hoad – Your Servant, Elizabeth **
23 July
John Adams – Shaker Loops
Judith Weir – Indelible, Miraculous **
26 July
George Walker – Variations for Orchestra
28 July
Jennifer Walshe – The Site of an Investigation
29 July
Nicole Lizée – Blurr is the Colour of My True Love’s Eyes †
31 July
Harrison Birtwistle – Sonance Severance 2000
1 August
Hildur Guðnadóttir & Sam Slater (arr. Robert Ames) – Battlefield 2042 – suite †
3 August
4 August
Kalevi Aho – Eight Seasons (Concerto for Theremin and Chamber Orchestra)
Kaija Saariaho – Vista
5 August
Julian Anderson – Symphony No. 2, ‘Prague Panoramas’ **
6 August
8 August
Gavin Higgins – Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra **
10 August
11 August
Anna Thorvaldsdottir – ARCHORA **
13 August
14 August
Kaija Saariaho – Vers toi qui es si loin
Missy Mazzoli – Violin Concerto, ‘Procession’ †
15 August
Mark-Anthony Turnage – Time Flies *
16 August
George Walker – Trombone Concerto
24 August
Harrison Birtwistle – Donum Simoni MMXVIII
26 August
29 August
Errollyn Wallen – Lady Super Spy Adventurer **
2 September
3 September
Philip Glass – No More, You Petty Spirits **
4 September
Alfred Schnittke – Viola Concerto
5 September
6 September
8 September
Valerie Coleman – This is Not a Small Voice
10 September
