BBC Proms 2006
28th April 2006
A collaboration between Max, Master of the Queen’s Music, and Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, A Little Birthday Music is the major commission to mark the Queen’s 80th birthday, and required the massed forces of 250 young singers, a fanfare team from the Scots Guards Band, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, all conducted by the new Chief Conductor of the BBCSO, Jiří Bělohlávek.
The Daily Telegraph reported that “the music sounded appreciably modern while being relatively easy on the ear [and] the ending was aptly rousing.”
Later in the summer, Hans Werner Henze’s Five Messages for the Queen of Sheba (drawing on motifs from his latest opera, L’Upupa und der triumph der sohnesliebe) receives its first performance in London on August 29. Kurt Masur and the Orchestre National de France perform the work as part of their tour taking them through Italy, Spain, Britain and Germany.
Classic names from the Music Sales catalogues also help make up this Proms season – Stravinsky, Poulenc, Falla, Barber, Elgar, Sibelius, Musgrave, Adams and Lutoslawski are each well represented. See the Proms website for the full programme.
