Today at the Proms - Prom 34

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2019, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 34: West–Eastern Divan Orchestra...



An evening of "proper" classical music tonight as we start off with some Schubert. His Unfinished Symphony consists of just 2 movements instead of the usual 4 and there are arguments about why it was left unfinished, since it was being worked on a full 6 years before he actually died and there were other compositions after it. Maybe he just forgot?



After the Interval we have Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra. Lutosławski is a composer that I don't know a lot about other than the fact he was Polish and based a lot of his work around this period (this was written in 1954) around historic Polish folk tunes. I've listened to the whole thing now and, for me, the third movement is a standout to look forward to in terms of orchestration.

However it is the Tchaikovsky that I'm looking forward to most tonight, with Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich on solo duty. I do enjoy watching a piano being played well (mostly because I can't do it myself - I got as far as the chords for Home on the Range in piano lessons) and, for all his flounce and candelabra, Liberace makes a damned fine job of it here.

 

Here's the full programme for this evening's Prom which you can listen to live from 19:30 on Radio 3 or on the iPlayer 


Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, 'Unfinished'(25 mins)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor(35 mins)

INTERVAL

Witold Lutosławski
Concerto for Orchestra(30 mins)


Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou