Today at the Proms - Prom 66 & 67

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2019, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 66: John Luther Adams's In the Name of the Earth and Prom 67: Sakari Oramo conducts Sibelius ...

Reminder: Watch PROM 35 Elgar's Enigma – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins on BBC Four tonight.

The early prom today is going to be something quite special, and I say that without ever having heard it. It's been described as "sonic installations that take the natural world not just as their inspiration but also as a stage." There are going to be eight choirs singing the names of mountains, deserts, rivers, forests and plains around the world to a soundscape of noise and that idea really appeals to me.

The natural theme continues into the evening prom with Sibelius' 5th Symphony as the main work, which contains a theme of horn triplets inspired by a flight of 16 swans taking off. Before that we have a work and composer I'm not familiar with and Judith Weir's Forest and there's a UK premiere for Louis Andriessen's The Only One (not to be confused with The One and Only by Chesney Hawkes). 

But it is the first work of the night that I want to share with you - again - as it's a favourite of mine and has been ever since I watched the original Disney Fantasia (where it's called A Night on Bald Mountain) and it still gives me nightmares.

Here's the full programme for this evening's Prom which you can listen to live on Radio 3 or on the iPlayer

Prom 66 - 11:00

John Luther Adams
In the Name of the Earth(50 mins)European premiere

Prom 67 - 19:30

Modest Mussorgsky
A Night on the Bare Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)(11 mins)Henry Wood Novelties: UK premiere, 1898

Louis Andriessen
The Only One (BBC co-commission with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and NTR ZaterdagMatinee: UK premiere)

INTERVAL

Judith Weir
Forest(13 mins)

Jean Sibelius
Symphony No 5 in E flat major(32 mins)(final version, 1919)

Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou