Welcome to your daily 2024 BBC Proms preview from BBC Music Magazine. Today's Prom 66 introduces a captivating soundworld, where the great Romantic composer Tchaikovsky meets the jazz legend Duke Ellington.
Keep coming back to www.classical-music.com every day during the 2024 Proms (which finishes, with the usual bang, this Saturday 14 September and the Last Night of the Proms). Each day we'll be previewing that evening's Prom concert, running our eye across repertoire, performers and more. And, if you want an overview of all the Proms taking place this year, just head to our all-inclusive 2024 BBC Proms guide, which lists all the Proms taking place both in London and at cities around the UK including Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, Gateshead, Newport and Nottingham.
What's on at the BBC Proms today?
We begin Prom 66 with a rather special version of Tchaikovsky's much-loved The Nutcracker Suite, arranged as a jazz suite in 1960 by Billy Strayhorn and the legendary jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. With tracks such as 'Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)' and 'Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)', it's very much a jazzed-up take on this best loved of all ballets, turning waltz into swing and Sugar Plum into heady rum.
- We named Duke Ellington one of the best jazz band leaders of all time. He also features in our A-Z of American music
- And Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite is one of the very best pieces for introducing children to classical music
Next up is Callaloo – Caribbean Suite for piano and orchestra, composed and performed by Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear. Interesting fact about Stewart: he's perhaps best known for his remarkable feat of performing all 32 of the piano sonatas by Beethoven in one day, an achievement he's managed on five occasions to date.
For tonight's main piece, the emotional barometer swings firmly towards drama and tragedy as we close with Tchaikovsky's final, emotionally charged symphonic masterpiece: the Symphony No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathétique’.
Tragic themes and deep emotional intensity
Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony is both one of his best known, and most emotionally powerful works. Completed in 1893, just a few weeks before the composer's death, the Pathétique is often heard as Tchaikovsky’s musical swan song, thanks to its tragic themes and deep emotional intensity. Suggested by Tchaikovsky’s brother Modest, the title Pathétique means something like 'passionate' or 'emotional' although it is often taken to mean 'tragic' in the context of this nakedly emotional, often overwhelming symphony.
- Tchaikovsky's Pathétique features in our list of the 20 greatest symphonies of all time
Each of the Pathétique's four movements has its own particular emotional landscape. Its form takes a departure from traditional symphonic structures - that's especially true of the final movement, which concludes not with the usual triumphant finale but rather with a slow, inexorable descent into despair.
Who is performing at the BBC Proms today?
Tonight's orchestra is Chineke!, Britain’s only orchestra of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. Chineke! performers past and present include bassoonist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Linton Stephens, Nigerian-Scottish trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, and members of the uniquely musical Kanneh-Mason family including cellist Sheku, pianist Isata and violinist Braimah. Conducting Chineke! tonight is Andrew Grams.
When does today's Prom start?
Prom 66 begins at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced from £11 to £54.
