Today at the Proms - Prom 5 & 6

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2019, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 5: CBeebies: A Musical Trip to the Moon and Prom 6: The Rite of Spring ...



The morning Prom is a repeat of yesterday's CBeebies one with all the childlike enthusiasm of going to the moon so I want to look at the later prom in more detail instead because...



STRAVINSKY!!!



Yes The Rite of Spring, my favouritest piece of classical music ever (so far at least), gets another airing tonight so that's a definite listen. It's paired here with a couple of interesting comparison pieces. I'm not the hugest fan of Britten to be honest, I find his work a little clunky, but this is one of the exceptions because the melodies are highly complex and emotive and, yet, it doesn't often get performed because of its difficulty level. As such I think it may sit well with Stravinsky.



The third, well first to be heard tonight in a UK premiere live performance, is written by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The piece, commissioned last year by the New York Phil is entitled Metacosmos which refers, according to the composer herself, "to this thought of falling into a black hole, going beyond to this other side and arriving somewhere that you did not know and had no control over."



See what you think, performed here by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Here's the full programme for this evening's Prom which you can listen to live on Radio 3 or on the iPlayer 



Prom 5 - 11:00



George Frideric Handel
Solomon – The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

Jessie Montgomery
Starburst

John Adams
Short Ride in a Fast Machine(4 mins)

Giacomo Puccini
Madam Butterfly – Humming Chorus(4 mins)

Aaron Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man(3 mins)

Hans Zimmer
Earth(6 mins)BBC commission: world premiere

Iain Farrington
Medley of CBeebies Favourites

Benjamin Britten
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - Fugue(4 mins)

Iain Farrington
Off to the Moon



Prom 6: 19:30

Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Metacosmos(14 mins)UK premiere

Benjamin Britten
Violin Concerto(32 mins)

INTERVAL

Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring(35 mins)



Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou