0:00:29 > 0:00:31Throughout the 2011 season,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34the Proms will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth
0:00:34 > 0:00:38of the virtuoso pianist and composer, Franz Liszt.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Tonight, we have his second piano concerto,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44which runs as a single movement and has been described -
0:00:44 > 0:00:48rather sweetly, I think - as "the life and adventures of a melody".
0:00:48 > 0:00:52It's performed this evening by 19-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56hailed as one of the most talented pianists to emerge in recent years.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00We spoke to Ben at home in Southend as he prepared for his Proms debut.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11'I'm from Westcliff-on-Sea, which is near Southend.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15'I'm very near - just two miles away I live from the town centre.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18'I've been here for going on 19 years,'
0:01:18 > 0:01:19and I haven't left.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21It's been my home for all that time.
0:01:21 > 0:01:27'My mother started my four older brothers all on an instrument,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29'all around the age of six.'
0:01:29 > 0:01:33I chose the piano because it was the one that was most familiar to me,
0:01:33 > 0:01:34because my mum is a piano teacher.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39'At first, I didn't... I wasn't particularly interested in it,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41'I kind of did it because she wanted me to.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46'I've always felt that the piano's not so much something
0:01:46 > 0:01:49'I wanted to do, more something that I had to do.'
0:01:51 > 0:01:54It feels more like a job.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56I get up and I practise and I finish,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00it's kind of like a working day. But I've always loved performing.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02I always thrived on it, which is the reasons why
0:02:02 > 0:02:04'my parents felt it was quite nice for me
0:02:04 > 0:02:06'to perform from quite an early age.'
0:02:12 > 0:02:14'It's slightly strange, looking back on it,'
0:02:14 > 0:02:18because I've changed so much. It's like looking at a different person!
0:02:20 > 0:02:24YOUNG BEN LISPING: 'I remember playing on the stage of the local pavilion in the concert hall.'
0:02:24 > 0:02:27And then, when I came off, I said to Mum,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30"I really, really want to be a concert pianist."
0:02:30 > 0:02:31I've lost a bit of weight.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33MIMICS LISP: And I don't shpeak like thish any more.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51'I started my degree at the Royal Academy of Music when I was 16.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'It's great for me now to be doing my degree at the Academy
0:02:55 > 0:02:57'because I'm around so many people
0:02:57 > 0:02:59'who are interested in the same thing as me.'
0:03:02 > 0:03:03- Hi.- Hi, Chris.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06'I study with Christopher Elton.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10'I've been studying with him since I was 11 now.'
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I think what makes Benjamin stand out,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15compared with most other young pianists,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17and even a lot of older ones,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20is the particular voice he's got, his style of playing.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26'He's someone who, I think,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29'goes back to a more bygone era of piano playing.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31'He's got an extraordinary vision,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35'he's got an extraordinary ear for delicacy, and for nuancing,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37'and for flexibility in the playing.'
0:03:43 > 0:03:46There are other people who run around the piano as fast as he does,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48but to do so with the delicacy,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50with the imagination, with the finesse,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53'with the creativity, that is very rare.'
0:03:54 > 0:03:57'I spend a lot of at the piano, and, I have to admit, sometimes you get'
0:03:57 > 0:04:01a bit fed up with it, but then you go and have a few days away from it,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04and you come back and you realise how much you love it.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13'I've been hoping to play at the Proms for a while,
0:04:13 > 0:04:14'but for your first Prom'
0:04:14 > 0:04:16to be the first night is quite incredible.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26APPLAUSE
0:04:28 > 0:04:31And here comes Benjamin Grosvenor now.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33What a night he's going to have,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36as he comes onto the stage for the very first time at the Proms
0:04:36 > 0:04:39to play Liszt's Second Piano Concerto,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42joined by conductor Jiri Belohlavek.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52WOODWIND OPENS CONCERTO SOFTLY
0:05:27 > 0:05:30PIANO JOINS
0:05:30 > 0:05:33GENTLE STRINGS JOIN
0:07:37 > 0:07:40MUSIC TAKES ON A MENACING TONE
0:09:00 > 0:09:04MUSIC TAKES ON A SENSE OF URGENCY
0:10:33 > 0:10:39BUILDING TO CRESCENDO THEN FADING
0:11:03 > 0:11:10GENTLE, SWEET PIANO
0:11:25 > 0:11:30ORCHESTRA JOINS IN SIMILAR TONE
0:11:36 > 0:11:38SOMBRE UNDERTONE
0:14:05 > 0:14:08LIGHTER, BRIGHTER TONE
0:15:36 > 0:15:38MUSIC BUILDS
0:15:58 > 0:16:01MUSIC SOFTENS
0:16:05 > 0:16:08MUSIC BUILDS
0:16:52 > 0:16:55BUILDING SENSE OF URGENCY
0:16:58 > 0:17:01BUILDING TO CRESCENDO
0:17:21 > 0:17:24MUSIC SOFTENS
0:18:00 > 0:18:03MUSIC BUILDS
0:18:44 > 0:18:47MUSIC SOFTENS
0:19:07 > 0:19:10MUSIC BUILDS
0:19:13 > 0:19:14SILENCE
0:19:14 > 0:19:17SOFT, SOMBRE PIANO
0:19:43 > 0:19:46ORCHESTRA JOINS IN SIMILAR TONE
0:20:08 > 0:20:12LIGHTER, BRIGHTER TONE
0:21:40 > 0:21:45BRIGHT, PLAYFUL TONE
0:21:59 > 0:22:02BUILDING TO CRESCENDO
0:22:10 > 0:22:12AND LEVELS OUT
0:22:24 > 0:22:28SLOWLY BUILDS
0:22:33 > 0:22:38MAJESTIC, BRASS-RICH THEME
0:22:56 > 0:23:01BUILDING TO CRESCENDO
0:23:12 > 0:23:14CRESCENDO
0:23:14 > 0:23:19APPLAUSE
0:23:28 > 0:23:31What a night for young Benjamin Grosvenor.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34The youngest-ever soloist at the First Night of the Proms.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Just 19 a couple of weeks ago.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Liszt's Second Piano Concerto,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46dispatched with confidence, with passion and delicacy.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49I really think he enjoyed that.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53No sign of nerves whatsoever,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and how appropriate that he was playing Liszt as well,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59because Liszt, of course, himself a teenage sensation,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02one of the most celebrated pianists of all time.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05When he toured Europe during the 19th century,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07his piano playing sent his fans into a frenzy,
0:24:07 > 0:24:12coining the phrase Lisztomania - something like Beatlemania,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14but just 100 or so years earlier.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Admirers would fight over clothing and locks of hair.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21A lesson, perhaps, for Benjamin Grosvenor,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25coming back to the stage now to take another very well-earned bow.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUES
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Well, an encore now from Benjamin Grosvenor.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27PLAYS: "Hungarian Dance No.5" by Johannes Brahms arr. Gyorgy Cziffra.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:29:10 > 0:29:13The applause taking the roof off the Albert Hall
0:29:13 > 0:29:16for Benjamin Grosvenor's encore there.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19That was Brahms' Hungarian Dance No.5
0:29:19 > 0:29:21arranged in particularly flamboyant fashion
0:29:21 > 0:29:25by Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Cziffra.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29From me, Katie Derham, and all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall,
0:29:29 > 0:29:30good night.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:32 > 0:29:35E-mail subtitling @bbc.co.uk