BBC Proms 2011

New British music, Brahms, Liszt and a lavish choral work blaze a trail for some of 2011's Proms musical strands. Benjamin Grosvenor made his Proms debut, and there's Janáček's extraordinary celebration of Slavic culture, the Glagolitic Mass. Friday 15 July 7.30pm – c. 9.40pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events, Piano music Judith Weir Stars, Night, Music and Light (c4 mins) BBC Commission, World Premiere Brahms Academic Festival Overture (11 mins) Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major (20 mins) INTERVAL Janáček Glagolitic Mass (45 mins) Benjamin Grosvenor piano Hibla Gerzmava soprano Dagmar Pecková mezzo-soprano Stefan Vinke tenor Jan Martiník bass David Goode organ BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Jiří Bělohlávek conductor

In the first half of his second Prom Myung-Whun Chung pairs works by German Romantics from opposite ends of the 19th century, including the meltingly beautiful Brahms Double Concerto with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. After the interval comes a piece with French connections which swept away that old order. A sensational succès de scandale in 1913 for Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring not only prompted the most famous riot in musical history but sounds sensational still, rediscovering rhythm as music's primal driving force. Tuesday 19 July 7.00pm – c. 9.00pm Royal Albert Hall Classical for starters Weber Oberon - overture (9 mins) Brahms Concerto in A minor for Violin and Cello (Double Concerto) (32 mins) INTERVAL Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (33 mins) Renaud Capuçon violin Gautier Capuçon cello Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Myung-Whun Chung conductor

Thursday 21 July 7.30pm – c. 9.45pm Royal Albert Hall Piano music Sibelius Scènes historiques - Suite No. 2 (19 mins) Sibelius Symphony No. 7 in C major (23 mins) INTERVAL Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 (24 mins) Janáček Sinfonietta (24 mins) András Schiff piano Hallé Sir Mark Elder conductor

Basque-born Juanjo Mena, recently named Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, makes his Proms debut with this dazzling Franco-Spanish evening. Debussy's three orchestral Images are interspersed with evocations of an idealised South filled with the rhythms of Gypsy dancing and the scent of jasmine. The brilliant showpieces of Ravel are complemented by Falla's Impressionistic Andalusian concerto, in which the orchestra is joined by pianist Steven Osborne. Friday 22 July 7.30pm – c. 9.50pm Royal Albert Hall Classical for starters, French music concerts and events, Piano music Debussy Images - Gigues (7 mins) Ravel Rapsodie espagnole (15 mins) Debussy Images - Rondes de printemps (9 mins) INTERVAL Ravel Alborado del gracioso (8 mins) Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain (24 mins) Debussy Images - Ibéria (20 mins) Steven Osborne piano BBC Philharmonic Juanjo Mena conductor

Music composed by Nitin Sawhney for the Human Planet television series, and performances by artistst including Ayarkhaan (Sakha Republic), Bibilang Shark-Calling Group (Papua New Guinea), Khusugtun (Mongolia), Rasmus Lyberth (Greenland), and Enock Mbongwe (Zambia). BBC Concert Orchestra, Charles Hazlewood (conductor) and Paul Rose (presenter).. Big-screen video projections and excerpts from Nitin Sawhney's score for the acclaimed landmark BBC One series Human Planet, alongside artists heard in BBC Radio 3's accompanying Music Planet series. Saturday 23 July 7.30pm – c. 9.45pm Royal Albert Hall For families There will be one interval

The ultimate in dramatic intensity, this extraordinary work speaks of heaven and hell, fire and earth, darkness and light in music that is as much theatrical as devotional. The Requiem is always a special event - the more so when we have on the podium a Verdi specialist whose recent Cologne recording, which also featured Ferruccio Furlanetto, has been much acclaimed. Tonight's stellar line-up also includes Marina Poplavskaya and Joseph Calleja, who both sang alongside Furlanetto in last year's Simon Boccanegra. Sunday 24 July 7.00pm – c. 8.40pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events Verdi Requiem (86 mins) Marina Poplavskaya soprano Mariana Pentcheva mezzo-soprano Joseph Calleja tenor Ferruccio Furlanetto bass BBC Symphony Chorus BBC National Chorus of Wales London Philharmonic Choir BBC Symphony Orchestra Semyon Bychkov conductor

Sir Roger Norrington has chosen Mahler's last completed symphony for his final concerts as Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 1998. Written at a time of personal crisis, the Ninth begins with what some have heard as the irregular rhythm of Mahler's own failing heartbeat and it ends with a long fade to eternal nothingness. In between comes perhaps the greatest, certainly the most cathartic, of all late- Romantic symphonies. Sadly, the composer did not live to hear it. Tonight's performance promises to be both a moving occasion and a revealing one, taking up the faster pacing and purer orchestral sonorities of the composer's own time. Monday 25 July 7.30pm – c. 9.00pm Royal Albert Hall Mahler Symphony No. 9 (73 mins) Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) Sir Roger Norrington conductor

Vladimir Jurowski's Hungarian Prom kicks off with Kodály's effervescent Dances of Galánta. Bartók's more acerbically ebullient First Piano Concerto will give pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet a chance to use both hands: his previous Proms appearances, in 2008 and 2010, both involved pieces conceived for the left hand alone! In tonight's second half, an influential masterwork from one of this year's featured composers, born 200 years ago. Liszt's A Faust Symphony 'in three character portraits, after Goethe' will be played in the version that concludes with a grandiose setting of the 'Chorus mysticus' unheard at the Proms since 1967. Tuesday 26 July 7.30pm – c. 9.55pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events, Piano music Kodály Dances of Galánta (16 mins) Bartók Piano Concerto No. 1 (24 mins) INTERVAL Liszt A Faust Symphony (62 mins) Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano Marco Jentzsch tenor London Philharmonic Choir (men's voices) London Symphony Chorus (men's voices) London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Anyone who has split their sides laughing at CBBC's hit television series Horrible Histories now has the chance to see and hear the cast perform some of the most popular songs from the show, ranging from the Savage Stone Age and the Vicious Vikings to the Gorgeous Georgians and the Vile Victorians. Backed by children's choirs and the Aurora Orchestra, the songs will be interspersed with some great music by composers such as King Henry VIII, Lully, Mozart and the prolific 'Anon'. Horrible Histories, based on the best-selling books by Terry Deary with illustrations by Martin Brown, has proved a massive success. Children love the series, and the songs (music by Richie Webb) have proved among the most memorable elements of the show. Come to see the stars and sing along! Following the success of the first-ever signed Prom last year, Dr Paul Whittaker, Artistic Director of Music and the Deaf, returns to guide you through this free Prom. Saturday 30 July 11.00am – c. 1.00pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events, For families Louise Fryer (presenter), Horrible Histories cast, Choirs from The Music Centre, Kids Company Choir, Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon (conductor). There will be one interval.

Strauss at his most passionate (and lascivious!) bookends a concert full of spectacle and panache. At its heart is the patriotic cantata Prokofiev drew from his music for Eisenstein's epic film about a medieval Russian hero's defeat of the Teutonic invader. That score had quite an impact on Walton's own wartime work for the cinema but it is the subtler brio of his Violin Concerto that is heard before the interval. Midori is one of relatively few international superstars to have taken up a piece whose formidable technical challenges were actively encouraged by Jascha Heifetz, its original soloist, but whose lyricism is all pervasive too. Saturday 30 July 7.30pm – c. 9.55pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events R. Strauss Don Juan (17 mins) Walton Violin Concerto (32 mins) INTERVAL Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky - cantata (40 mins) R. Strauss Salome - Dance of the Seven Veils (12 mins) Midori violin Nadezhda Serdiuk mezzo-soprano CBSO Chorus City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons conductor

Tasmin Little and Sir Andrew Davis tackle a favourite concerto which the violinist has only recently felt ready to commit to disc. It is preceded by one of Elgar's most radical part-songs, notated in two keys simultaneously in a manner which might be said to parallel the incorrigible experiments of Percy Grainger. To mark the 50th anniversary of that composer's death, his In a Nutshell suite receives a first outing at the Proms, reaching its popular march finale by way of some unpredictable and darkly complex invention. Once considered dangerously radical itself, Strauss's perky symphonic poem documents the adventures of a purely mythical rascal. Tuesday 2 August 7.00pm – c. 9.15pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events, Classical for starters Elgar There is sweet music (4 mins) Elgar Violin Concerto (50 mins) INTERVAL Grainger Irish Tune from County Derry (4 mins) Grainger Suite 'In a Nutshell' (20 mins) R. Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (15 mins) Tasmin Little violin BBC Singers BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Grainger is celebrated in a special Late Night sequence as star Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell and friends take a fresh look at the prodigious activities of this wild colonial boy. A pioneering collector of folk music from around the globe and arguably the world's first crossover artist, Grainger explored new worlds and invented new sounds, by turns touching, funny and provocative. Special guests, including the distinguished English folk singer June Tabor, place his achievement in its folk-music context. Tuesday 2 August 10.15pm – c. 11.30pm Royal Albert Hall Choral music and singing events Grainger Green Bushes (9 mins) Grainger Molly on the Shore (5 mins) Grainger Shepherd's Hey - medley (12 mins) Grainger Early One Morning (5 mins) Grainger Shallow Brown (8 mins) Grainger Scotch Strathspey and Reel (9 mins) Interspersed with traditional and contemporary folk music, including material which formed the basis for Grainger's arrangements June Tabor singer Wilson Family BBC Singers (men's voices) Kathryn Tickell Band Northern Sinfonia John Harle conductor