Proms 2023 Prom 21: Adams, Copland and Skye

In the first of two consecutive concerts this week, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft present an all-American Prom. Two poems by Emily Dickinson provide the starting point for Harmonium, one of John Adams’s most powerful works for chorus and orchestra. Propulsive, motoric urgency gives way briefly to blissful waves of sound, before a blazing conclusion. Jazz runs through the veins of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by ‘King of Swing’ Benny Goodman and performed here with soloist Annelien Van Wauwe. The concert opens with a world premiere from Los Angeles-based composer Derrick Skye, whose music has been described as ‘deliciously head-spinning’.

Image: Annelien Van Wauwe © Joëlle Van Autreve