Episode guide

BBC Proms: 2022

24 episodes · first aired Jul 15, 2022

This summer the world’s largest classical music festival returns in its full glory to the Royal Albert Hall for an unforgettable eight-week season. Running from 15 July to 10 September, the 2022 BBC Proms will showcase large-scale repertoire not heard at the festival since 2019.

Back to BBC Proms: cast and where to watch

1 First Night of the Proms 2022 Jul 15, 2022 · 1h 30m Giuseppe Verdi had a complicated relationship with religion: he asked to be buried with just ‘one priest, one candle, one cross’. But as a born dramatist, he knew how to tell a great story…
2 Prom 2: John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London Jul 17, 2022 British conductor John Wilson has long been a Proms favourite, but last year’s debut appearance of his new super-orchestra the Sinfonia of London caused a sensation. ‘Astonishing,’ wrote…
3 Prom 3: Radio 1 Relax at the Proms Jul 22, 2022 Celebrating the BBC’s centenary year, the Proms partners with Radio 1 Relax for a late-night wind-down. Relax with Radio 1’s Chillest Show presenter Sian Eleri, who appears onstage to…
4 Prom 10: Music for Royal Occasions Jul 24, 2022 Happy and glorious: the story of British music is inextricably linked with royalty, and down the centuries composers ranging from Handel and Elgar to Walton, Parry and Vaughan Williams…
5 Prom 16: Sea Sketches with Andrew Manze and BBC NOW Jul 29, 2022 ‘Behold, the sea itself!’ Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony takes the poetry of Walt Whitman and opens the floodgates to a spring tide of inspiration. Andrew Manze’s Vaughan Williams…
6 Prom 19: Puccini’s Il tabarro Jul 31, 2022 Life on a French river barge is tough, and for a young wife it can be lonely too. But in this closed and arduous world, even a dream of a better world can spark jealousy. Il tabarro is a…
7 Prom 21: Gaming Prom – From 8-Bit to Infinity Aug 5, 2022 Fantastic worlds, epic adventures, complex characters and huge moral choices – the universe of computer gaming is a natural match for orchestral music, and in the 21st century games have…
8 Prom 28: Leif Ove Andsnes – Mozart Momentum 1 Aug 7, 2022 When Mozart composed his piano concertos, he had a very specific performer in mind – himself. For Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, that’s part of the appeal. ‘When you realise how…
9 Prom 19a: Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra Aug 7, 2022 · 2h 4m The newly formed Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, made up of Ukrainian musicians – some from Ukraine’s major cities, some now displaced as refugees, and others who play in European orchestras…
10 Prom 35: Yuja Wang with the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä Aug 12, 2022 No prizes for identifying the real hero of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. With its swashbuckling self-confidence and self-mocking humour, this ‘Hero’s Life’ is very much the world…
11 Prom 34: Thorvaldsdottir, Elgar and Sibelius Aug 14, 2022 Three composers, three landscapes. Elgar wrote his Cello Concerto in the woodlands of Sussex; for many listeners, its autumnal colours evoke emotions too deep for words. From his home in…
12 Prom 27: NYOGB plays Elfman, Gershwin and Ravel Aug 19, 2022 ‘I think and feel in sounds,’ said Maurice Ravel. So, when he wrote his ballet Daphnis and Chloe, he created a sumptuous musical panorama in which you can hear every drop of dew, every…
13 Prom 36: Marin Alsop conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Aug 21, 2022 Viennese orchestral playing is a byword for excellence, rooted in generations of tradition. But under its distinguished (and adventurous) American Music Director Marin Alsop, the Vienna…
14 Prom 47: Aretha Franklin – Queen of Soul Aug 26, 2022 In her 80th-anniversary year – and 50 years since the release of her album Young, Gifted and Black – the Proms pays tribute to the ‘Queen of Soul’, Aretha Franklin. A singer, songwriter…
15 Prom 4: Cynthia Erivo – Legendary Voices Aug 27, 2022 Cynthia Erivo is a creative phenomenon: a London-born, Tony, Grammy and Emmy award-winning actress, singer, songwriter and producer, whose career has taken her from her childhood in South…
16 Prom 49: Rattle conducts Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony Aug 28, 2022 The end has come, and in the silence after the Last Trumpet, a solitary bird is the only sound heard on Earth. The ambition of Gustav Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony staggers the…
17 Prom 54: Earth Prom with Chris Packham Aug 29, 2022 Over a century of public service broadcasting, the BBC has forged a global reputation for its coverage of the planet we call home – from the oceans and mountains to rivers, glaciers…
18 Prom 58: Public Service Broadcasting – This New Noise Sep 2, 2022 Archive footage, dancing astronauts and a flashing, blinking Sputnik right here in the Royal Albert Hall – when cult ‘retro-futurists’ Public Service Broadcasting brought The Race to Space…
19 Prom 61: Chineke! performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Sep 4, 2022 ‘Be embraced, all you millions!’ Since the earliest days of the Proms, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has had a special place in each season – and with its climactic choral ‘Ode to Joy’, it’s…
20 Prom 67: Nicola Benedetti plays Wynton Marsalis Sep 9, 2022 ‘Nicola Benedetti – now, she really can play,’ says the American composer, trumpeter and all-round jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, and after Benedetti gave the world premiere of the concerto…
21 Last Night of the Proms 2022 - Part 1 Sep 10, 2022 It’s time to put on your party clothes, grab your favourite flag and raise the roof of the Royal Albert Hall! There’s nothing quite like the Last Night of the Proms – the happiest annual…
22 Last Night of the Proms - Part 2 Sep 10, 2022 It’s time to put on your party clothes, grab your favourite flag and raise the roof of the Royal Albert Hall! There’s nothing quite like the Last Night of the Proms – the happiest annual…
23 Unmissable Moments Sep 11, 2022 · 1h 39m Take a whistlestop tour through the very best music from the 2022 Proms season in this one-off special. Eight weeks of world-class concerts become just 100 minutes of standout performances…
24 CBeebies Prom: Ocean Adventure Sep 16, 2022 · 1h Join CBeebies for an ocean adventure travelling the musical world in the Royal Albert Hall submarine to find endangered creatures and tackle tricky environmental problems. The musical…