Last Night of the Proms - Part 1 BBC Proms

It all started eight weeks ago. There have been 74 concerts here at

the Royal Albert Hall, thousands of musicians have been performing on

stage and tens of thousands of people have been queuing for

tickets. Now, well the party is already under way. It's the climax

of the 2011 summer music making season, it is the Last Night of the

Welcome to the Royal Albert Hall for the grandest of grand finales.

It's another sellout concert as nearly 6,000 people wait to

celebrate the end of another great season of Proms. Tonight, we'll

hear performances from two international soloists, in the

first half of the concert the superstar pianist Lang Lang will be

dazzling us with a performance of a Concerto by Liszt and Britain's

leading dramatic soprano Susan Bullock will be singing Wagner, a

scene from the end of his epic Ring cycle. This isn't just a concert

but a national occasion as we celebrate the Last Night with

events around the country. If you want to see what's happening at any

of those events you can press the red button on your remote control.

Getting under way across the road is the Prom in the Park in Hyde

Park. And in a few minutes Lang Lang will be performing on stage

there before rushing back to join us here in the hall.

But we start with a world premiere of a new work by the master of the

Queen's music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. It's been written as a

thank you to the promenaders in the arena and high up in the gallery

who after every concert collect money for musical charities. The

piece is called Musica Benevolens. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has

incorporated text written by the promenaders about what music means

to them. So, at the composer's request, the Prommers will take

On stage are the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony

Chorus and the leader of the orchestra is Andrew Haveron.

They're already and waiting for the conductor, Edward Gardner who at 36

is the youngest director to take charge of the Last Night of the

Proms since Henry Wood conducted the first Last Night in 1895. There

he is to open the final Prom of 2011 with Musica Benevolens by Sir

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The world premiere of Musica Benevolens by Sir Peter Maxwell

Davies, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC

Symphony Chorus and the Fanfare Trumpeters of the Household

Division, conducted by Edward Gardner, and not forgetting, of

course, the enthusiastic contribution of the Prommers who

this year so far raised �74,000 for And there is Sir Peter Maxwell

Davies to take his bow. Just celebrated his 77th birthday a

couple of days ago and his prohrfic output shows no sign of slowing.

Wonderful character. His very first work was broadcast

on the BBC's Children's Hour when he was just 12 years old.

Now it's time for the Last Night tradition of honouring the founder

of the Proms, Sir Henry wood by placing a chaplet of Laurels on the

bust of the great man. Doing the honours for Sir Henry

this year two promenaders proudly taking their place up above the

choir. That's Nick Breckenfield giving Sir Henry a quick dust there.

Nick bought his first season ticket in 1989 and hasn't missed a year

since. With him Daffydd Price Jones, he started Promming 21 years ago

when his young daughter dragged him into the arena.

Hungarian composer Bartok completed his score for the ballet the Daily

Mirror the Mirror - for the Miraculous Mandarin in 1926. It was

premiered later that year, but the story of prostitution, robbery and

murder was considered so scandalous that after only one more

performance in Prague all future productions were banned. We are

going to hear the suite which Bartok fashioned from the ballet.

He made two short cuts and wrote a new ending. It's a real showpiece

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and highly dramatic reflecting the The Miraculous Mandarin Suite by

Bela Bartok performed tonight by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with

Andrew Haveron and conducted by Edward Gardner. The ballet tells

the tale of a Chinese Mandarin coaxed into a brothel where he is

robbed, suffocated, stabbed and hung by three thugs but refuses to

die, hence the miracle, until he has embraced the woman who lured

him there. Gritty stuff. Since her first appearance at the

Proms in 1995 Susan Bullock has gone on to become one of the

world's leading dramatic Sopranos. She's been described as having a

turbo-charged voice and that's certainly what you need for singing

Wagner. In a few minutes she will sing the Immolation scene scene

from Gotterdammerung. She sings the role of the grieve stricken

Valkyrie Brunnhilde who with the magic ring on her finger leaps on

horseback on to the funeral pyre of her lover to destroy the ring and

save the world. We spoke to Susan about Wagner and

the physical and emotional When did you first hear Wagner?

first heard Wagner when I was sitting in my house as a young girl

and my brother came home from university and played it full blast

in his bedroom, we had no choice but to listen to it and eventually

I went in and sat there and followed the score and thout wow,

this is incredible. I was about 12 Tell us more about the complexity

of Brunnhilde as a character to play? To do the role is huge. I

mean, it is an Everest. Especially this piece, because you go through

such a huge journey as the character, from the girl who opens

the piece, the young woman in love, to the woman at the end and takes

charge of what is to be the future, the destiny of the world. It's a

huge journey. To do it in isolation in a concert is also demanding

because you have to try and get all that drama into the 20 minutes,

although people won't have seen the previous five hours. What is it

about Wagner that divides opinion so strongly? A lot of people just,

if you say the word Wagner they go oh, loud, screaming people. Long,

boring. You know, drawn out stories. If it's done properly it's actually

some of the most gripping theatre you will ever see. Of course,

normally the orchestra is in a pit and this time I have them all

behind me so to feel that wave of sound coming right at my back is