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YOU WONT BELIEVE: Sakari oramo - What They Never Told You

Magnificent minimalism, sizzling Strauss, bracing Berlioz: Guardian critics’ top picks for Proms 2026

As details of this year’s concert series are unveiled, here are some of the most exciting lineups – from a Bach recital by Notre-Dame’s organist to Thomas Adès conducting the National Youth Orchestra in his own ballet

The Guardian - UK

BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Oramo/ Son review – rainy days, rolling hills and enchanted creatures

Judith Weir’s salute to the Indian monsoon kicked off a concert on nature and folk themes, Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son brought poetic flourishes to works by Bartók and Finzi, while the magical Firebird made a rousing finale

The Guardian - UK

BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Oramo/ Tetzlaff review – plain-speaking, big-hearted fare

Sakari Oramo and his orchestra served up a multifaceted concert, from swaggering Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to virtuosic Thomas Adès and mistily magical Sibelius

The Guardian - UK

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First Night of the Proms review: 'who thought this was a good idea?'

4/5 The first night of the 2025 BBC Proms was a mixed bag, with one glaring misstep among the high points

Evening Standard

First night of the Proms review – Batiashvili’s magnificent Sibelius opens the festival

An oddly disparate programme, including an Errollyn Wallen world premiere and a Vaughan Williams rarity, didn’t quite cohere in this opening concert, but all was outstandingly played

The Guardian - UK

BBC Proms 2025: Full line-up revealed, including first-time Traitors Prom

86 star-studded Proms will be held across the eight-week festival

The Independent UK

Claudia Winkleman to host Traitors Prom as BBC reveals line-up for 2025 season

US musician St Vincent and British conductor Sir Simon Rattle also feature in the series of Proms.

Evening Standard

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BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo review – Carwithen comes in from the cold

The neglected British composer’s concerto, ignored for more than half a century, only hints at greatness – but triumphant recitals of Arnold and Williams make up for it

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Oramo review – Kaija Saariaho’s final work receives poignant UK premiere

The Finnish composer’s spectral four-movement Hush was the centrepiece of a programme based on themes of death and transcendence – a moving eulogy to her genius

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Oramo review – Kirill Gerstein plays the near unplayable

The pianist delivered the thundering arpeggios and glittering octave runs of Ferrucio Busoni’s prodigiously difficult 1904 piano concerto with total authority

The Guardian - UK

Prom 67: BBCSO/Peltokoski/Kopatchinskaja review – conducting sensation reveals what the fuss is about

The 24-year-old Tarmo Peltokoski showed there’s substance to the hype with thoughtful Schoenberg – Kopatchinskaja playing with elfin grace – and an ambitious and moving account of Shostakovich’s fifth

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Oramo review – the freshness Oramo brought to Sibelius was a joyous revelation

Sakari Oramo presented the Finnish composer’s enigmatic Sixth symphony and the majestic Seventh as a single span in a concert that also included the UK premiere of Tebogo Monnakgotla’s Globe Skimmer Surfing the Somali Jet with violinist Johan Dalene

The Guardian - UK

Bacewicz: Symphonies 3 & 4 album review – Oramo is a passionate advocate

Sakari Oramo and the BBCSO revel in the expert orchestrations of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music in this first instalment of recordings of the Polish composer’s orchestral works

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Oramo review – a fresh take on Mahler’s Fifth

Sakari Oramo proved once again what a special Mahlerian he is with this outstanding performance, in a programme that also featured an early Ligeti work and the UK premiere of an underwhelming orchestral piece by Dora Pejačević

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Prom 51: BBCSO/Oramo review – Tetzlaff’s Elgar is as good as one could wish

The violinist gave a masterly performance of Elgar’s violin concerto, well matched by a responsive Sakari Oramo. Judith Weir’s nature-filled Begin Afresh, receiving its premiere, was evocative and full of ideas

The Guardian - UK

Proms 45 & 46: BBCSO/Oramo; Manchester Collective review – Mahler with martial zeal and shimmering electronic works

Mahler’s Third Symphony is a huge undertaking, impressively played by the BBCSO, followed by a rare late-night excursion into contemporary works

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Innocence; Sakari Oramo/BBCSO; Explore Ensemble – review

A big week for Finnish music and musicians led by Kaija Saariaho’s powerful opera about a school shooting, and a thrilling Bartok performance

The Guardian - UK

The Observer view on the BBC silencing its Singers

Axing musicians and its chamber choir won’t make the broadcaster richer, but will make the nation poorer

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The Guardian - UK

Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller review – hair-raising climaxes and soaring operatic intensity

A day of concerts led by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra explored the Finnish composer’s tone poems and songs, and made for a vivid - and special - experience

Evening Standard

BBC Proms 2022: Prom 44 Ethel Smyth review - a triumphant return for her long-forgotten Mass

There’s been a recent resurgence of interest in the early 20th century composer and this was a triumphant return for her Mass

The Guardian - UK

Prom 44: BBCSO/Oramo review – Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D played with gravitas and grandeur

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus brought dynamic shading to Smyth’s at times forbidding work, and conjured sensuous beauty from Debussy’s Nocturnes

The Guardian - UK

Prom 39: BBCSO/Oramo review – a soaring tale of three cities … and a blackbird

Oramo’s Prom of English music included the UK premiere of Turnage’s Time Flies; with an encore of Paul McCartney’s Blackbird from tubist Constantin Hartwig

Evening Standard

BBC Proms 2022: Mark-Anthony Turnage/Oramo/BBC SO review - a tale of three cities

The composer’s clear jazzy inclinations were evident in this elegant new work

The Guardian - UK

The First Night of the Proms review – moments of beauty amid the fury

Royal Albert Hall, LondonAfter the restrictions of the last two seasons, the massed choirs and orchestra are given notable prominence this year

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