Overview

• The evening began with Arthur Bliss’s Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood, leading into Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s subtly nuanced performance of Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture.
• Georgian violinist Lia Batiashvili earned acclaim for a technically assured and poetically expressive account of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto.
• The Elements, Errollyn Wallen’s new BBC commission, premiered to praise for its vibrant rhythms and inventive orchestration reflecting the elemental building blocks of music.
• Vaughan Williams’s Sancta Civitas closed the concert with three choirs, soloists Gerald Finley and Caspar Singh, organ and orchestra combining to evoke the Book of Revelation.
• With the triumphant opening behind it, the 2025 Proms season runs through 13 September featuring foreign orchestras, fresh commissions and themed concerts across Britain.