Proms; Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestar
Fifty years since Benjamin Britten’s death, former BBC Young Musician winner Guy Johnston brings the composer’s Cello Symphony to the Proms
28.7.2026
19:00
London
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore
Music
Originally written for Mstislav Rostropovich, it’s the composer at his most intense: a tour de force for the soloist, set against a brooding, often eerie orchestral backdrop. There’s darkness in Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 as well – gloriously thrown aside in the glowing finale – but is it the weight of Russian political oppression or of personal loss? The concert opens with the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen Suite, adapted from the composer’s multi-Olivier-Award-winning 2025 opera.