S50 · E08

BBC Proms 96

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, making its British television debut, is conducted by Valery Gergiev in a programme of Russian and French music. The concert is introduced by Christopher Warren-Green, leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and begins with Prokofiev's Symphony No 6, the composer's most tragic, emotional and structurally complex work, written during the last years of the Second World War. This is followed by the European premiere of an orchestration by the contemporary Russian composer Edison Denisov of Musorgsky's The Nursery, sung by the young Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. The concert finishes with a performance of Debussy's atmospheric evocation of the sea, La Mer. During the interval, Christopher Warren-Green's travel diary records his bike trip to the Netherlands.