The 2014 BBC Proms season gets under way this Friday and among the usual mix of favourite classics, anniversary tributes, new commissions and forays into other cultures, is a fair helping of nature-inspired music and literature.
As the season progresses, we will be previewing and reviewing the best examples. We will explore the relationship between nature, the environment and the composers and writers whose works are inspired in some way by the natural world.
During the festival extended features will be posted here. We explore Beethoven’s gently radical outpouring of love for the countryside, his Pastoral Symphony (performance 21 July), alongside two other “pastoral” works – Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending (13 August) and Mahler’s first symphony (4 September).
Three living composers with very different ways of reflecting the inspiration that comes from the natural world are featured, too. We will be in conversation with Jonathan Dove ahead of his BBC-commissioned premiere on 28 July and will also explore works by Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies, whose 80th birthdays are celebrated this year.
Proms Plus is reflecting on the writings on Gavin Maxwell in his centenary year, and so will we.
As the season progresses, we will be previewing and reviewing the best examples. We will explore the relationship between nature, the environment and the composers and writers whose works are inspired in some way by the natural world.
During the festival extended features will be posted here. We explore Beethoven’s gently radical outpouring of love for the countryside, his Pastoral Symphony (performance 21 July), alongside two other “pastoral” works – Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending (13 August) and Mahler’s first symphony (4 September).
Three living composers with very different ways of reflecting the inspiration that comes from the natural world are featured, too. We will be in conversation with Jonathan Dove ahead of his BBC-commissioned premiere on 28 July and will also explore works by Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies, whose 80th birthdays are celebrated this year.
Proms Plus is reflecting on the writings on Gavin Maxwell in his centenary year, and so will we.
Cuckoo (Wikimedia commons) The BBC Proms run from 18 July to 13 September at venues in London and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Well-loved and new pieces inspired by the natural world include (all 7.30pm at the Royal Albert Hall unless otherwise stated):
Beethoven, Pastoral Symphony 21 July
Jonathan Dove, Gaia Theory (World Premiere) 28 July
Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Night's Black Bird 30 July
Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending 13 August 6.30pm
Mahler, First Symphony 4 September
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 80th Birthday Concert 8 September, 10.30pm
During the interval on 21 July the live Proms broadcast will feature a celebration of the murmuration of starlings by sound and vision artist Kathy Hinde and the RSPB's Tony Whitehead.
And on 15 Aug Nature writers Horatio Clare and Miriam Darlington celebrate the life of Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water, whose centenary is this year. Proms Plus Literary, 5.45pm, Royal College of Music, London
Beethoven, Pastoral Symphony 21 July
Jonathan Dove, Gaia Theory (World Premiere) 28 July
Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Night's Black Bird 30 July
Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending 13 August 6.30pm
Mahler, First Symphony 4 September
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 80th Birthday Concert 8 September, 10.30pm
During the interval on 21 July the live Proms broadcast will feature a celebration of the murmuration of starlings by sound and vision artist Kathy Hinde and the RSPB's Tony Whitehead.
And on 15 Aug Nature writers Horatio Clare and Miriam Darlington celebrate the life of Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water, whose centenary is this year. Proms Plus Literary, 5.45pm, Royal College of Music, London
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