Today at the Proms - Prom 47

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2019, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 47: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra ...



Reminder: Watch Prom 44: Belshazzar's Feast on BBC Four this evening



Tonight's prom is brought to you by the letter B. The main event after the interval is Bruckner's epic Symphony no 8. Huge in ambition as well as scale, the brass throughout is just beautiful, moving from a dreamlike start through to a militaristic finale and it will be very interesting to listen to the tempo that the conductor tonight, Andris Nelson, chooses for the faster sections because they're often played slower than intended.



But it's the first part of the evening that I'm looking forward to most. Back to Bach and the pleasure his wonderful organ always gives (wait... that didn't sound right. Ach, you know what I mean). Five short works showcase the intricacy that is possible with an often bombastic instrument. Just listen to the delicate ornamentation of trills and incidentals in this rendition of Sleepers Awake ('Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme') by Rodney Gehrke on the Flentrop organ from All Saints Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California and marvel that the tone remains so pure and clean.







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 



Johann Sebastian Bach
Fantasia in G minor, BWV 542(4 mins)
Cantata No. 147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben', BWV 147 – Chorale 'Jesus bleibet meine Freude' (transcr. Schmidt-Mannheim)(3 mins)
Prelude in E flat major, BWV 552(7 mins)
Chorale Prelude 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme', BWV 645(3 mins)
Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552(7 mins)

INTERVAL

Anton Bruckner
Symphony No 8 in C minor (1890 version, ed. Nowak)(80 mins)
Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou