BBC Proms 2020

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BBC Proms: 2020: Beethoven, Barber and Copland from the 2007 BBC Proms

Prom 30 Marin Alsop credit Adriane White.jpg

Beethoven, Barber and Copland from the 2007 BBC Proms

2020

BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2020, Beethoven, Barber and Copland from the 2007 BBC Proms

James Ehnes plays Barber’s Violin Concerto.

Marin Alsop leads the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a showcase of 20th-century American music, including Barber’s Violin Concerto with James Ehnes and Copland's Symphony No 3.

In 2020, BBC Radio 3 is bringing together musical greats, from the past and the present, in one extraordinary Proms season. Radio 3 is broadcasting the best of four decades of unmissable Proms concerts and tonight Martin Handley introduces a concert from the 2007 season featuring the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop in a programme including two American 20th-century classics.

Beethoven: Overture ‘Leonore’ No. 3
Barber: Violin Concerto
Copland: Symphony No. 3

James Ehnes (violin)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop (conductor)

(From the BBC Proms 2007, 25 July)

New York-born Marin Alsop conducts a programme that reflects the substantial body of American works introduced to the BBC Proms during the 1940s and 1950s. Barber’s lushly romantic Violin Concerto – which received its UK premiere at the 1943 Proms – is heard alongside Copland’s iconic folk-influenced symphony, a work which helped define the sound of American orchestral music.

Opening the concert is Beethoven’s third attempt at a curtain-raiser for his only opera, Leonore (later renamed Fidelio). Despite being rejected for a fourth and final iteration, this overture perfectly encapsulates the essence of Beethoven’s opera: a proud celebration of freedom and conjugal love.

Presented by Martin Handley.

BBC Proms: 2020

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Beethoven, Barber and Copland from the 2007 BBC Proms

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