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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

Anthems, agency and arias: baritone Davóne Tines on rewriting his role – and the rules

The acclaimed US opera singer refuses to restrict himself or his audience. His current Barbican residency sees him range across genres. Always ask questions, always engage, he says. He talks ‘capital O opera’ and big ideas

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Schuldt review – Phibbs cello concerto brings cohesion to uneven programme

Clemens Schuldt kept the volume high in an inconsistent evening in which the BBC Symphony Orchestra ranged across Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet, Mel Bonis’s Ophélie and a suite from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier

The Guardian - UK

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MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio review – a magical choral performance

Roderick Williams and Rhian Lois were the perfectly matched vocal soloists as James MacMillan conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a ferociously committed performance of his own Christmas story

The Guardian - UK

La Rondine review – new version of Puccini’s opera makes aftertaste bitter rather than sweet

Carlo Rizzi and the BBC Symphony Orchestra sparkled as Ermonela Jaho as Magda and Iván Ayón-Rivas as Ruggero delivered the composer’s long-lost preferred version

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

BBCSO/Stasevska: Become Ocean review – elemental, unsettling and beautiful

A brilliantly thought-through sequence of music by Thorvaldsdottir, Ligeti and John Luther Adams made for a powerful and immersive experience

The Guardian - UK

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Bill Bailey ‘proud to be British’ following Last Night Of The Proms performance

The comedian’s father watched on as he played Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter at the Royal Albert Hall

The Independent UK

Bill Bailey ‘proud to be British’ after Last Night Of The Proms performance

The 60-year-old made his Proms debut in a performance of Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter at the Royal Albert Hall.

Evening Standard

A Mass of Life review – magical and ecstatic Proms performance of Delius’s magnum opus

Mark Elder and the BBC Symphony Orchestra make such an outstanding case for Delius’s setting of Nietzsche that its 37-year absence from the Proms is baffling

The Guardian - UK

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

BBCSO/Elder review – like a Klimt painting in sound

The final concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s season brought us Franz Schreker’s sensual and elusive Chamber Symphony and Mahler’s intense Das Lied von der Erde

The Guardian - UK

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

Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez review – still refreshingly alien

The hands of pianist Tamara Stefanovich executed a mesmerising ballet as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins saluted this revolutionary composer

The Guardian - UK

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Evening Standard

Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez at the Barbican review — the BBC at its best

5/5 Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a tribute to the legendary composer

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Il Trovatore; Total Immersion: Symphonic Electronics; Mad Song; Jerusalem Quartet – review

A fearless Agnieszka Rehlis leads a Verdi revival that will leave you rattled, while an electroacoustic extravaganza dives into tech and a viola steals the show in a Shostakovich celebration

The National (Scotland)

Liam Payne, Dave Myers and Maggie Smith among those lost in 2024

Liam Payne, Michael Mosley, Alex Salmond and Maggie Smith were among the celebrities we lost in 2024 ...

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

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The Guardian - UK

Prom 14: BBCSO/Järvi/Yunchan Lim review – star pianist brings subtlety and brilliance to Beethoven

The BBC Symphony Orchestra struggled at times to match the exuberance of the young Korean, making his proms debut with the Emperor Piano concerto

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: BBC Proms week one review – hallelujahs all round

First Night fireworks with Elim Chan and co, a triumphant farewell from Mark Elder, and a ravishing love triangle kicked off a re-energised Proms

The Guardian - UK

BBCSO/Brabbins: Italian Radicals review – politically charged, expressive and technical

Works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio got the BBC Symphony Orchestra Total Immersion treatment

The Guardian - UK

BBC unveils 2024 Proms lineup: Daniel Barenboim, Daleks and disco

The 81-year-old conductor makes a rare UK visit with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, while Yo-Yo Ma, Doctor Who, Florence Welch, Sam Smith and Rule, Britannia! all feature

The Guardian - UK

Sir Andrew Davis obituary

One of Britain’s greatest conductors widely admired for leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms

WEKU

Conductor Andrew Davis, who headed orchestras on 3 continents, dies at 80

Davis led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Britain's Glyndebourne Festival, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

The Guardian - UK

Sir Andrew Davis, ex-chief conductor of BBC Symphony Orchestra, dies aged 80

Musician had held top roles at Glyndebourne opera and in Chicago, Melbourne and Toronto orchestras

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