See 4 performances featuring BBC Concert OrchestraThe BBC Concert Orchestra is one of the country’s most versatile ensembles. For more than half a century it’s been the house orchestra for BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night, and gives regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. Their work can be heard on soundtracks to many BBC TV programmes including The Blue Planet and Walking with Dinosaurs, and it was also the orchestra for BBC 2’s Maestro series, accompanying various celebrities as they learnt to conduct.
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a regular at the BBC Electric Proms performing alongside the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey, Mark Ronson and Kasabian. It also continues to work with Anne Dudley, a former Composer-in-Association, and there’s a new music-theatre piece in the pipeline from Will Gregory, one half of the electronica duo Goldfrapp. Its gigs with Elbow performing the complete album The Seldom Seen Kid and The Pet Shop Boys, pay further tribute to its unrivalled versatility. Later this year the Concert Orchestra go on tour to Abu Dhabi and America.
| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 49: Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard |
 When choosing a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to be performed at the Proms in a year firmly branded as "London 2012", The Yeomen of the Guard had obvious appeal, being set in one of the capital's most famous landmarks, and giving the opportunity, even in semi-staged form, to deck the hall with Beefeater uniforms. And indeed, if you include excerpts, this Sullivan operetta has had 62 outings at the Proms, more than any other Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
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| 13-Aug-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 40: Comedy Prom |
 Have you ever been in a chorus of 5,000 people singing the words of an Indian takeaway menu to the tune of Nessun Dorma? Well, courtesy of Kit and the Widow, Susan Bullock and the BBC Comedy Prom, I now have. Of course, the delight of the Proms audience is that not only did everyone know the tune, but a large majority were able to sing it quite competently: it really sounded more than decent. And you'd be amazed at how well you can fit the words "Chicken Tikka Masala" and "Twenty pints of lager" into Puccini's music, not to mention the closing climax of "Vindaloo" to the tune for "vincerò".
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| 17-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Havergal Brian's monumental Gothic Symphony |
 A work scheduled to last nearly two hours could be excused for starting with a long slow build up, but Havergal Brian’s massive Gothic Symphony (the longest symphony ever composed) bursts onto the scene with a brisk and bustling march-like flourish, contrasted briefly with a delicate violin solo that reminds us that this is very much an English composition. The rest of the first movement is musically intense as the tension is tightened in a series of harmonically complex climaxes, aided for the last few bars by the massive sound of the organ.Read full review... | |
