Continuing your indispensable day-by-day guide to all the BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall this summer. Here's all you need to know about today's concert (Wednesday 7 August), which features music from, among others, Schumann, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.
If you need to know more about this year's Proms, head over to our bells-and-whistles 2024 BBC Proms guide for all the essential info on every 2024 BBC Proms concert. Repertoire, orchestras, soloists, times, ticket prices: you'll find all you need to know, both about the Proms taking place at the Albert Hall and those at other venues around the UK. There are weekend festivals taking place at Nottingham, Gateshead and Bristol, and chamber music concerts in Aberdeen, Belfast and Newport.
What's on at the BBC Proms today?
Today's Prom, Prom 25, opens with the overture to Genoveva, Robert Schumann's only opera. The work itself, which owes something to the early operas of Richard Wagner (particularly Lohengrin), is relatively little performed today: however, its overture remains popular.
Another shorter piece you'll hear at tonight's Prom is Pohjola’s Daughter by Jean Sibelius. One of the Finnish composer's many superbly atmospheric orchestral tone poems, Pohjola’s Daughter draws, like Sibelius's other tone poems, on the Finnish national epic story, the Kalevala. In this case, it's the story (in music) of a beautiful maiden from the far North who makes such impossible demands on a would-be suitor (such as tying an egg into invisible knots!) that, after some heroic struggles, he gives up and continues on his way.
We also have the UK premiere of the Horn Concerto by contemporary Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952). Then it's the turn of tonight's major work: Tchaikovsky's dramatic, emotional Fourth Symphony. This powerful work opens with an attention-grabbing brass fanfare, which the composer likened to the sound of Fate knocking.
Tchaikovsky called this urgent, anxious brass theme 'the kernel, the quintessence, the chief thought of the whole symphony', and likened it to the sound of Fate, the 'the 'fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness ... There is nothing to be done but to submit to it and lament in vain'.
In this way, Tchaikovsky's Fourth somewhat resembles another famous symphony that opens with an insistent 'Fate' theme: the Fifth Symphony by Beethoven. Mahler's own Fifth opens with a similarly assertive motif.
Who is performing at tonight's Prom?
The performers for Prom 25 are the BBC Philharmonic orchestra and conductor John Storgårds (pictured top), one of an impressive collection of hugely talented Finnish conductors working today. They are joined by hornist Stefan Dohr for the Abrahamsen Horn Concerto.
Is today's BBC Prom on TV?
Today's Prom is not being broadcast on television. But, as with all the Proms, it will be available to listen to on BBC Radio 3.
What time does tonight's Prom start?
Prom 25 starts at 7.30pm.
And how much are tickets for the BBC Proms today?
You can purchase tickets for Prom 24 at a range of prices from £10 to £44. Or, why not be a Prommer for the day, and join the line for the chance of snapping up a ticket for only £8?
