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Prom 44: Belshazzar’s Feast

The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sir Simon Rattle and Gerald Finley in Koechlin's Les bandar-log, Varese's Amériques and Walton's cantata, Belshazzar’s Feast.

Another chance to hear the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sir Simon Rattle and Gerald Finley in Koechlin's Les bandar-log, Varese's Amériques and Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast.

Presented from the Royal Albert Hall by Petroc Trelawny

Koechlin: Les bandar-log
Varese: Amériques (original version, 1921)

Interval Proms Plus
Since its publication in 1894, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book has remained loved by children, but its attitudes have been questioned by some parents and critics, who see it as a relic of colonial English literature. Koechlin’s Les Bandar-Log is part of his nearly life long effort to set The Jungle Book to music. Costa Book Prize winning novelist Frances Hardinge and Sue Walsh from Reading University explore the book’s popularity and controversies with New Generation Thinker Anindya Raychaudhuri.
Produced by Luke Mulhall.

Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast

Gerald Finley baritone
Orfeo Catala
Orfeo Catala Youth Choir
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle conductor

Sir Simon Rattle conducts a concert of sonic spectacle, bringing one of the great English oratorios together with an American orchestral classic.

Walton’s choral masterpiece Belshazzar’s Feast gets the Proms treatment with a 300-strong choir and Canadian baritone Gerald Finley as soloist.

More than 10 percussionists are needed to bring Varese’s Amériques – a celebration of the modern city in sound – to life, while Charles Koechlin’s Jungle Book inspired Les bandar-log transports listeners to the primeval forest, where all the noise comes from the monkeys.

2 hours, 13 minutes

Music Played

  • Charles Koechlin

    Les bandar-log

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
  • Edgard Varèse

    Amériques (original version, 1921)

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
  • William Walton

    Belshazzar's Feast

    Singer: Gerald Finley. Choir: Orfeó Català. Choir: Orfeo Catala Youth Choir. Choir: London Symphony Chorus. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
  • Karol Szymanowski

    Three Masques for piano, Op 34

    Performer: Dennis Lee.
    • Szymanowski Etudes: Fantasy: Masques: Metopes: Dennis Lee, Piano.
    • Helios.
    • 11.

Broadcast

  • Sun 1 Sep 2019 16:00

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