BBC Proms announce 2022 concert line-up
After two years of cancellations and adapted programming, audiences are being welcomed back to the Royal Albert Hall for a full, eight-week season of concerts
The programme for this year’s BBC Proms has been announced, with a full season of concerts running over eight weeks, complete with visits from international orchestras, Late Night Proms and a series of Proms taking place around the country.
Among the events are celebrations of Vaughan Williams’s 150th anniversary spread across the season, as well as concerts to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and a very significant anniversary for the BBC itself.
Vaughan Williams will be honoured with performances of his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Symphony No.4 in F minor, Sea Symphony, Oboe Concerto and Tuba Concerto among other works. In tribute to the Platinum Jubilee, a special Prom will feature Music for Royal Occasions by composers including Purcell, Coates, Bliss, Handel and Britten.
Public Service Broadcasting also has a Prom to itself this year, with a new large scale commission marking 100 years since the BBC was founded.
2022 will see the return of international orchestras, too, including the Berliner Philharmonic led by Kirill Petrenko, the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Australian World Orchestra led by Zubin Mehta.
The Proms also welcomes the newly formed Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as part of a European and US tour this summer. Brought together by the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Polish National Opera, and led by Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, the orchestra includes recently refugeed Ukrainian musicians, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and some of the top musicians of Kviv, Liviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine.
This year’s First Night of the Proms features a performance of Verdi’s Requiem from the Crouch End Festival Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra under their Principal Conductor Sakari Oramo, with soloists to include soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and tenor Freddie De Tommaso.
As per pre-pandemic times, the Proms will set its sights beyond the Royal Albert Hall with the Proms at… series. This year sees more Proms than ever held at venues across the country, including the Battersea Arts Centre, Truro, St George’s Bristol, the Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall in Cardiff, St George’s Liverpool, Bradshaw Hall in Birmingham, the Royal Conservatoire Scotland in Glasgow and the Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, launching a new partnership with the venue. Plus, in a collaboration between the Proms and ENO, Printworks London will host an immersive operatic spectacle juxtaposing works by Philip Glass and Handel.
After a two-year hiatus, Late Night Proms will return this year, with concerts including a Radio 1 Relax at the Proms, a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and an appearance from The Sixteen.
Contemporary composers will be well represented this year, with world premieres from Sally Beamish, Anna Thorvaldsdottir Archer, Matthew Kaner, Philip Glass, Holder Gudnadottir, James B Wilson, Gavin Higgins, Betsy Jolas, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and the Norwegian virtuoso jazz saxophonist Marius Neset.
A special strand to the programme will celebrate the composer and member of the women’s suffrage movement Ethel Smyth, with performances of her opera 'The Wreckers’, her Double Concerto for Horn & Violin, her Mass in D and her Piano Trio.
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Further anniversaries being celebrated in this year’s Proms include those of César Franck (200th) and Iannis Xenakis (100th).
The BBC Symphony Orchestra returns under principal guest conductor Dalia Stasevska for the Last Night of the Proms, in a performance featuring soprano Lise Davidsen and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
As always, you can catch every Prom this year live on BBC Radio 3 and to listen back later on BBC Sounds. 21 concerts will be broadcast on BBC TV and iPlayer.
To attend the Proms in person, seated tickets will be available from £8.50 for under-18s and Promming tickets will be on sale from £6. A total of 96,000 tickets will be available for under £20. All tickets go on sale on Saturday 21 May 2022.
This year’s season will take place from Friday 15 July to Saturday 10 September. For a full list of concerts click here: Concert Listings.
Authors
Hannah Nepilova is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine. She has also written for The Financial Times, The Times, The Strad, Gramophone, Opera Now, Opera, the BBC Proms and the Philharmonia, and runs The Cusp, an online magazine exploring the boundaries between art forms. Born to Czech parents, she has a strong interest in Czech music and culture.
