An all-French programme whose first half celebrates the bright, exotic colours conjured by Bizet, who died 150 years ago. As well as a suite from his incidental music for ‘The Girl from Arles’, we hear the fantasy for violin and orchestra featuring music – including the famous ‘Habanera’ – from his best-loved opera, reimagined with explosive virtuosity by Sarasate.
South Korean violinist Inmo Yang makes his Proms debut in the seductive, mercurial mantle of Bizet’s Gypsy-heroine. Saint-Saëns’s spectacular Symphony No. 3 puts the 9,999 pipes of the Royal Albert Hall organ (nicknamed the ‘Voice of Jupiter’) in the spotlight at the climax of this monumental work, and there’s more musical drama from gods and sea monsters in Augusta Holmès’s tone-poem Andromède.
Programme
Bizet: L’Arlésienne – Suite No. 1 17’
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy 12’
Interval
Holmès: Andromède 15’
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, ‘Organ’ 36’
Performers
Inmo Yang – violin
Rachel Mahon – organ
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Marie Jacquot – conductor