The BBC Proms returns this week with a programme that ranges from a forest soundscape to an all-star jazz trio and what the organisers describe as "the fires of hell" — a Stravinsky ballet that promises to be one of the musical events of the summer. Here are my picks of the new music coming to the Royal Albert Hall and beyond.
The festival opens with a new work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the Icelandic composer whose music has been described as the sound of geology — slow, immense and elemental. Her new piece, "Forest," uses the orchestra as a living ecosystem, with sounds emerging from and retreating into silence in a way that suggests the breathing of something ancient and vast. Thorvaldsdottir is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music, and her Proms debut is long overdue.
The all-star trio of Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Brian Blade — three of the most influential jazz musicians of their generation — perform together for the first time at the Proms in a late-night concert that is expected to be one of the hottest tickets of the season. Their collaboration, which has been years in the making, is a summit meeting of American jazz, and the Royal Albert Hall, with its cathedral-like acoustic, should be a magnificent setting for it.
Stravinsky's "The Firebird" is the centrepiece of a programme that also includes works by Debussy and Ravel, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sakari Oramo. The Firebird is one of the great showpieces of the repertoire, a ballet score that tells the story of a magical bird, an evil sorcerer and the triumph of love over darkness. It is music that demands to be experienced live, and the Proms is the ideal venue for it.
The Proms runs for eight weeks and includes more than 70 concerts. These three are my highlights. Your mileage may vary — but that is the point of the Proms. There is something for everyone, and the best discoveries are the ones you did not expect to make.
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