I do like to stroll along the proms, proms, proms...

So, the idea is that I am going to listen to all of the 2026 BBC Promenade Concerts, and write about each one. Sadly I have already fallen behind schedule but will work hard over the next few days to play catch up.

Let’s begin with the First Night of the Proms, Saturday 19^th July. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers were conducted by Proms darling Dalia Stasevska and joined by ‘superstar’ Korean pianist Yunchan Lim and New Zealand tenor Thomas Atkins. The concert was broadcast on BBC1 as well as Radio 3 and it was the TV broadcast I shall consider.

The BBC 1 relay was introduced by Petroc Trelawny and Georgia Mann (my two favourite Radio 3 presenters) with additional comments from Sandi Toksvig. More on them later…

The concert began with Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’, which is on my list of music I have heard a great deal but of which I never tire. The performance was exemplary. There followed Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’, which is on my list of music I’d prefer never to hear again. I find Gershwin overrated as a ‘classical’ composer even as far as ‘Porgy and Bess’ is concerned, which has great moments, but which is very uneven. That being said, as I had to listen, I must report that the BBCSO did a fine job with a string of stunning solos, particularly from the trumpet.

Next up was Ravel’s Piano Concerto. The Prommers did their normal tedious ‘Heave!’ ‘Ho!’ routine as the piano lid was raised and cheered the leader as he played an ‘A’ on the piano for the orchestra to tune. Sandi Toksvig informed us that a grand piano weighs about the same as a large polar bear, which was one of her more interesting contributions. Earlier she had been pleased to note that, while in the Dark Ages one was supposed know a bit about classical music in order to appreciate it, this was a programme accessible to all. She did not exactly say ‘we’ve all had enough of experts’  (pace Michael Gove) but it would not have surprised me had she done so. Petroc and Georgia in skittish, even flirtatious mood, found everything splendid. Fortunately, it generally was. Yunchan Lim gave a stunning account of the Ravel (although my pianist wife did not approve of his unorthodox hand position) and then topped it all with a ravishing performance of Kosma’s ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (Autumn Leaves). All cliches applied – a packed Albert Hall was rapt, entranced and enthralled. Petroc, Georgia and Sandi were stunned into something like silence, if only for a moment.

Interval interviews found Dalia Staskeva understandably distracted and eager to get on with it. Thomas Atkins, when asked what Proms he was looking forward to, was touchingly true to tenor form when he singled out his own. Josephine Stephenson was unhelpfully vague about her Prom world premiere ‘That the sunrise not leave us unmoved.’ The presenting trio did their best to talk up Finzi’s ‘For St Cecilia’ with Toksvig making the unsupported (and incorrect) claim that Finzi had fallen out of fashion. She hoped that he and poet Edmund Blunden (whose words were set) would have their profiles raised by the evening’s performance. Given the mediocrity of Finzi’s piece, (see below) this seems unlikely.

The Stephenson was well crafted but, on first hearing, uninspired, not helped by some muddy and hesitant choral singing. The piece sets some poems by Emily Dickinson, but I could not distinguish a single word and there were no surtitles. I shall give it another go and report back.

As I said above, the Finzi was not an example of his best work (and I love Finzi at his best). The writing, intended to evoke earlier English composers, was mainly pretty turgid with only one typical Finzi melody breaking through towards the end. Thomas Atkins, deserves credit for singing this unfamiliar work from memory. He has an attractive voice with a dignified platform manner but at climactic moments he forced his essentially  lyrical instrument in a way I found alarming. Having said that, Georgia Mann was in raptures about his performance, so perhaps the microphone caught his voice unkindly.

All in all then an uneven but generally positive start to the 2026 Proms. Conductor and orchestra did a predictably fine job. Sadly, some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to offer an arrangement of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ as an encore, tapping into the World Cup zeitgeist. This was a grotesque spectacle and sound, made worse by the obvious discomfort of most of the audience when invited to sing along…

There was more communal singing in the Late Night Prom on Tuesday 21^st July but before we got there, rising English tenor star Laurence Kilsby sang Dowland and Purcell along with the Jupiter Ensemble, directed by lutenist Thomas Dunford. Kilsby started with Dowland’s ‘Come again, sweet love doth now invite’. My initial impression was that he was forcing his very attractive lyric voice in an attempt to fill the huge RAH, but as the song progressed it was clear that the forceful, vehement singing was an artistic choice, taking a cue from the song’s final verse

Gentle Love, draw forth thy wounding dart,

Thou canst not pierce her heart;

For I, that to approve,

By sighs and tears more hot than are thy shafts

Did tempt, while she for triumph laughs.

Kilsby sang this with real vitriol, aided by a ferociously articulated accompaniment. This was convincing up to a point: there is bitterness in this song, but bitterness that is ameliorated by bitter-sweet, melancholic acceptance. The performers clearly thought otherwise and continued to emphasise the anger of unrequited love. ‘Flow my tears’ for example made it clear that these particular tears are harsh and pitiful

Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,

Learn to contemn light.

Happy, happy they that in hell

Feel not the world’s despite.

Laurence Kilsby was totally committed to his interpretation, and the Jupiter Ensemble supported him with rasping sonorities and wonderfully exciting rhythmic drive.

This commitment continued with Purcell: ‘Strike the viol’ was an urgent command, instrumental pieces were spikey and febrile. The effect was thrilling, but ultimately rather exhausting. There is more light and shade in these two great English composers, and I should have liked Kilsby to display more of the lyrical qualities of his exceptional voice. Purcell’s sublime ‘Evening Hymn’ showed him at something like his best, but even here, higher notes were rather raw. I do hope he does not compromise his beautiful tone by neglecting basic technical matters.

Thomas Dunsford certainly produced an invigorating performance from his expert players, but his spoken introductions were rambling and mumbled. He deserves credit for teaching the audience some four-part harmony (they were far more enthusiastic about this than Wonderwall…) and it was good to introduce members of the Jupiter Ensemble individually, but performing two of his own songs as encores seemed an unnecessary vanity project, and the attempt to perform ‘Hey Jude’ was a definite mistake.

Earlier that evening, the BBC Philharmonic under the baton of  John Storgards     provided far less controversy with an effective account of Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ and a really gorgeous performance of the Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with Sueye Park a silver toned soloist. The concert began with American-French composer Betsy Jolas’ ‘Tales of a Summer Sea’. I wish I could be more enthusiastic about a work by a lady about to celebrate her

100^th birthday, but it joins my list of pieces I had not heard and never want to hear again.

Rewinding to Sunday 19^th July. In the afternoon The Black Dyke Band produced brass band playing of superlative quality, confirming that Holst’s ‘Moorland Suite’ is a work of genius (with a wonderfully ghostly nocturne slow movement) and paying homage to the excellent film ‘Brassed Off’ with the ‘Concerto de Orange Juice’ (Roderigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez) a work reprised complete in the evening by the Spanish Symphony Orchestra, with Rafael Aguirre the elegant soloist, just one of the heat-soaked Spanish classics commemorating the night Spain won the World Cup. De Falla’s ‘Three Cornered Hat’ suites were an exhilarating highlight. Conductor David Afkham donning a Spanish football scarf elicited frenzied cheers. A particularly happy evening.

That’s it for now. Next up: Prog Rock, Beethoven 9, Mahler 6 and more…