The BBC Proms

Saturday, 4:23 pm

By Kate

Jul

16

2005

This week began the BBC Proms, billed as the World’s Greatest Classical Music Festival. The concerts are broadcast live on BBC3 radio, streamed right to your very own computer. The day after the concerts conclude, BBC3 radio offers them up in their Proms archives for about 7 days. Oh man, this is bliss.

The concerts began last night and run through September 10—over 70 concerts in all. Most are performed in the Royal Albert Hall in London. This year’s themes are Fairy Tales, The Sea (in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar), and Composer Anniversaries.

Last night’s concert started off the season with The Sea theme and featured Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Elgar, and Tippett. Tonight’s concert was all about Gilbert and Sullivan. I just finished listening to HMS Pinafore, including a specially written narration that replaced dialogue and it was delightfully humorous. I love hearing audience response. Tomorrow’s concert is all Purcell and Monday is Wagner’s Die Walküre with Placido Domingo. Oh yeah! And I’m counting hours until Tuesday’s concert, which features Benjamin Britten and Vaughn Williams. That’s just for starters. This is so great!

If you like classical music, this is just a feast. I love the internet.