First Night of the Proms BBC Proms

So far this summer, we have had some spectacular football at the World

Cup in Brazil. Mud and rain did nothing to dampen the spirits at

Glastonbury and the tennis world descended on SW 19 for a top-flight

Wimbledon championship. Now it is time for the "Jewel in the Crown" of

BBC music. Welcome to the 120th season of the BBC Proms.

. We see the very best of the best. They give their best and sometimes

better than that. It is a tremendous experience. You cannot miss a single

note. It is something everybody should do

at least once in their lifetime. It is unbelievable that you can come

and see some of the best performers living on stage, for ?5. The people

that come and stand in the queue for hours - that shows you that you're

doing something really right. When you hear the audience

supporting you and clapping and cheering, it gives me goose bumps.

It is the greatest musical there is. You feel like rock stars. If they

reach out, you can reach out. You can touch across.

There is a sense of history. Everybody has performed there.

People walk into the building and leave the building smiling. What's

more important than that? In the Proms 2014, there is a huge choice

of performances to look forward to across the summer and across the

BBC. It is a truly global season. We have more international orchestras

visiting than ever before, from China, to Melbourne, to ka tar to

Iceland. The range of music is just as wide. Of course, we'll have the

classics by great composers. That's not all.

We mark the centenary of the First World War with many concerts,

including the War Horse Proms. And the world premier of the Requiem

Fragments. We feature music by Richard straus to mark the 150th

birthday of his birth. John Wilson and his orchestra are back. We are

transported back to the swing era with the Battle of the Bands. Some

of the music to look forward to over the next eight weeks.

So, hello. Tonight, we open the Proms 2014 in grand style w a single

masterpiece by the great English composer Sir Edward Elgar. We will

hear his powerful oratorio, The Kingdom, performed by the BBC

Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC BBC National Chorus of

Wales. Nearly 400 performers in all. It is one of 26 Proms on television

during the season. All the concerts can be heard live

on Radio 3 and you can find the details on the website.

Tonight's performance is conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Always a

favourite here at the Proms. Returning this season in his 70th

birthday year. Elgar's The Kingdom is ideally suited to the Victorian

splendour of the Royal Albert Hall. The five parts tell the stories of

the apostles as order they men reacting to extraordinary events. It

was intended as the central part of a grander scheme.

When writing in earnest at his Hereford home Edward Elgar realised

his life long ambition to explore the roots of the Christian church

demanded a trilogy of oratorios. He started with the apostles and

intended to end with The Last Judgement, which he didn't manage to

finish. The heart, The Kingdom, remains.

The Kingdom has every possible mood you can think of. It has amazement.

It has anger. The simplicity of it and the genuine

feeling of community and the fact that this binds everybody the

together is something I think is the biggest feature of the work.

I love the Royal Albert Hall. It is a wonderful place in which to

perform pieces on this scale. We have the BBC Symphony Orchestra and

Chorus and the BBC National Chorus of Wales. The thrill of that many

people, and also in the very still moments, I think - there's nothing

as wonderful. If you want to go to a concert and

come away being thrilled with the grandeur of it and there are grand

moment in this piece, but that is not what it's about ultimately. It

has a wonderful sense of why we are here. Always at the end of The

Kingdom, I found it difficult to retain the objectivity that a

conductor always has to have. I find the piece as touching as

anything that Elgar wrote. It is a supreme example of Elgar

bearing his most intimate soul to us and that is what really makes this

one of his greatest works. Sir Andrew Davis there. Andrew Davis

is a leading interpreter of Elgar's music. Earlier this year he received

the Elgar Society Medal, to mark his significant contribution to the

composer's legacy and that is the leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra

and Chorus, that composer's legacy and that is the

leader of the BBC Symphony is Stephen Bryant.

And any minute now, should expect our conductor of the evening to join

us. And there he is. Just following on

from the soloists. Andrew Davis with Erin Wall, who sings the Blessed

Virgin. Catherine Wyn-Rogers who sings Mary Magdalene. Andrew

Staples, St John and Christopher Purves, who sings St Peter. There is

Andrew Davis. Elgar's The Kingdom.

Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC

nags BBC National Chorus of Wales and conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

Clearly moved by the whole experience. As he brings the leader

of the orchestra to his feet, warm applause here in the Royal Albert

Hall for all 400 performers. APPLAUSE

This is Sir Davis's 70th birthday year, during which he's been

conducting three of Elgar's great oratorios.

Not just conductor laureate of the BBC symphony orchestra, he's chief

conductor of the Melbourne sim fon ni Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Elgar conducted the first performance of his work in

Birmingham n 1906. The following days the papers reported his

emotions were so stirred by his work, that tears were streaming down

his face several times during the oratorio. A warm applause now for

the soloists. We can see the barrow tone Christopher Purves. Tenor

Andrew Staples. And the soprano Erin Wall and

mezzo-soprano, Catherine Wyn-Rogers. APPLAUSE

#12k3w4r the chorus masters there. -- the chorus masters there. They do

so much work. Stephen Jackson and Adrian Partington.

And that brings us to the end of the first night of the Proms, 2014. I do

hope you have enjoyed it and that you will tune into all the Proms,

live on Radio 3, on BBC Four a week today Petroc Trelawny and Danielle

de Niese will be here with a concert of Beethovan, Dvorak and Richard

Strauss.ly be back on the 26th July and I will review the week's musical

events here at the Proms. Do join me for. That for now, as the applause

continues here, at the Royal Albert Hall, from all of us, have a very

good night. through the clouds for television's

most ambitious experiment. With this, we're going to be able

to see the weather from the inside.