1,000 seats at BBC Proms, no foreign bands

The BBC has rolled out a six-week Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall, stacked with British ensembles and a pledge never again to consider abolishing Rule, Britannia from the Last Night concert.

A plan to do so in Brexit year showed just how far BBC executives had lost touch with the public mood.

The only non-British ensemble in the season is the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the English composer George Benjamin.

A performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by Joshua Bell, paired with Astor Piazzolla’s Buenos Aires version, seems a tad too clickbait to be discussed in this serious space.

Other highlights are a first-night commission from Sir James MacMillan to accompany Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music and an attempt by the Aurora Orchestra to perform Stravinsky’s Firebird from memory. Blindfold, perhaps.

There’s not a lot here to set blood rushing through the national arteries, but we are still in Covid times.

It is hoped that one in five seats will be occupied.

You can access a full listing here.