Is it Fate knocking on the door? The song of a bird? Hear the most famous four notes in history, as Aurora play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony from memory at the BBC Proms.
Aurora’s memorised performances have become an annual fixture at the Proms in recent years, with ‘by heart’ presentations of works by Mozart, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Berlioz. This year we’ll be harnessing the unique potential of an orchestra playing without music stands or sheet music to get inside Beethoven’s mighty Symphony No. 5: taking apart this much-loved work with the help of BBC Radio 3’s Tom Service, before delivering a complete performance of the symphony from memory.
We’ll also be toasting the anniversary of Iannis Xenakis with the composer’s final work, O-Mega, and welcoming the incomparable Patricia Kopatchinskaja for Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
Tickets
Tickets for the majority of BBC Proms concerts will be released for general sale on Saturday 21 May. You can use the Proms Planner tool in advance to plan which tickets you’d like to buy. For full details of the Proms ticket booking process, please refer to the Proms tickets guide on the Royal Albert Hall’s website.