2008 Promcasts

There were 11 new commissions at the Proms last year... we decided to hand out a few more.

The brief? Write a piece of music of no more than 3 minutes’ duration that takes a classic piece of Proms repertoire and ‘rewrites’ it. We wanted to hear what Beethoven, Brahms and Elgar could sound like in a new set of hands. We also wanted to hear a wide range of responses, and that’s what we got!

• Graham Ross’s astounding blend of Ravel’s Bolero and Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte;
• Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of the great Sergei) reimagining Tchaikovksy’s Sleeping Beauty;
• a team of London Symphony Orchestra composers each reworking Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance.

The composers provided their scores and programme notes for those who wanted to dig a bit deeper and illustrator David Saleh delivered lovingly-tended caricatures of the original composers.

In addition to the new music we created a weekly show that previewed the coming week at the BBC Proms, featuring interviews with musicians and conductors.