5:19PM, Jul 16, 2009
Union Jacks at the ready, the annual season of orchestral classical music is here.
High emotion and beautiful music will fill the Royal Albert Hall, like Glastonbury for the posh.
But you don’t have to be posh to be moved by the Elgar's timeless Cello Concerto, played here on the 150th birthday of its composition.
When close to death in 1934, Elgar hummed the concerto's opening theme and told a friend, 'if ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don’t be alarmed. It's only me.' You won't be able to hear a pin drop as cellist Paul Watkins glides through its sublime melody.
Chief Conductor Jiří Bělohlávek gets the Proms under way with Walton's rousing Portsmouth Point as a prelude to the Elgar. The theme of the piece came to him whilst riding the 22 bus through London, so do consider turning down your iPod if you spot any budding composers on public transport, or you could be killing a classic.
After the interval we will be treated to Beethoven's life-affirming choral masterpiece Symphony No. 9 in D minor. We were robbed of hearing it last year by a fire in the great Hall, so it makes an historic first appearance at a First Night.
There are over seventy Proms concerts before the emotional last night, so you have every opportunity to catch your favourite composers being performed by some of the world's greatest classical musicians.
Find out when First Night Of The Proms is showing on TV.
