BBC Proms line up announced

Daleks, Domingo and 1910 – Times Online reports this year’s BBC Proms delights.

“A packed Royal Albert Hall, thousands of classical music lovers on their feet roaring Rule Britannia amid a sea of Union Jacks – there is nothing else in the calendar remotely like the Last Night of the Proms.

Except that this year there is. For the first time, there will be two. The celebration that closes the two-month festival will take place as usual, on September 11. But it will be preceded six days earlier by a re-creation of the Last Night from a century ago, the finalé of a battery of events commemorating Sir Henry Wood, the father of the Proms.

Other notable events from the line-up announced yesterday include a visit by the great tenor-turned-baritone Plácido Domingo – now recovered from a health scare that some feared might end his career – three concerts conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the return of the leading American orchestras that stayed away last year and a pair of Doctor Who Proms – a great success in 2008 – featuring the new Time Lord, Matt Smith, and almost certainly Daleks.

But for Roger Wright, the controller of Radio 3 and director of the Proms, the sentimental highlight of the 2010 programme will be the 1910 Prom. “As part of celebrating the Proms’ heritage we decided to doff the cap to dear old Henry,” he said. “

To read the whole piece – click here