Here are all the details you need for today's BBC Proms concert. It's Tuesday 20 August, it's Prom 41, and it's Mozart. Lots and lots of lovely Mozart.
Tonight's Prom at the Royal Albert Hall features performance of four great works from the Mozart back catalogue, including the much-loved Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra; his magisterial final symphony, Symphony No. 41 in C major, ‘Jupiter’; and overtures from two of his most popular operas.
Don't forget to bookmark www.classical-music.com so you can check back in every day for your essential programme notes to each of this year's Proms. You can also dip into our comprehensive 2024 BBC Proms guide to find all you need to know about each of this year's concerts, including ticket prices, start times, repertoire and performers.
What's on at the BBC Proms today?
Today's Prom, Prom 41, is an all-Mozart prom. The delightful programme includes overtures from two of the great composer's best-loved operas, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Both are absolute cornerstones of the opera repertoire - indeed, when we asked more than 170 of the world's leading opera singers to name the greatest opera of all time, Figaro came out on top.
Tonight's programme also features Mozart's sublime Sinfonia Concertante, a beautiful work for violin and viola soloists plus orchestra. Largely elegant and serene, the Sinfonia Concertante also has its moments of melancholy and sorrow. Mozart penned the work when in his early twenties, although he already had a significant body of work to his name - including nine of his 27 piano concertos.
Tonight's captivating all-Mozart Prom culminates in a performance of surely one of the finest works by Mozart or indeed any classical composer. The Symphony No. 41 in C major, ‘Jupiter’, was his final symphony - and it's safe to say he ended on a high. It's a remarkably beautiful and uplifting work, blessed with an immense yet intricate design that features a joyous mixture of celebratory fanfares, yearning melodies and cascading scales.
Chief among the 'Jupiter's many marvels is its dazzling final movement, whose closing fugue awesomely knits together no fewer than five themes. The 'Jupiter' fully deserves its very high placing in our list of the 20 greatest symphonies of all time. You'd call it a feat of incredible musical craftsmanship if there weren't also so much (largely joyous) emotion involved. It's a uniquely uplifting listening experience.
Who is performing at tonight's Prom?
The performers for tonight's all-Mozart extravaganza are the German orchestra Ensemble Resonanz and conductor Riccardo Minasi. They are joined, for the Sinfonia Concertante, by the South Korean-German violinist Clara-Jumi Kang and British violist Timothy Ridout.
When does the BBC Proms concert today start?
Today's Prom 41 gets underway at 7.30pm, and tickets are priced between £11 and £54.
And is Prom 41 on TV?
Prom 41, featuring the Ensemble Resonanz and others in Mozart, is being recorded for broadcast on BBC Two later this season. And, as with all the Proms, it will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
