Family Guy probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the BBC Proms. This annual festival, which started in London on July 17 and runs through to September 12, is the 76-course meal (plus sides) at the heart of the British classical music calendar. Now in its 120th year, it continues to offer everything Sir Henry Wood aimed for when he conducted the first Prom in 1895: the widest range of music, performed to the highest standards, presented to large audiences. Cheap, too: you can still get £5 standing tickets on the day. (The word “Prom”, by the way, has nothing to do with adolescents in black tie; it’s a contraction of “promenade concert”, a term used to describe the outdoor concerts held in London’s so-called pleasure gardens in a now-vanished age.)
But what of Family Guy? In recent years, Proms programmers have succeeded in bringing in huge new audiences with innovative concerts embracing popular culture, including movie soundtracks, the Doctor Who Proms, a Broadway Prom in 2012, and many special shows aimed at young audiences. This year, a special Frank Sinatra Prom marking the singer’s centenary will be led by none other than Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. We’ll have to wait and see if Stewie Griffin will also be taking a bow.
Other novelties this year include a Sherlock Holmes Prom (Aug 16); a concert performance of Fiddler on the Roof, helmed by the British-American conductor David Charles Abell (Jul 25); an 85th birthday celebration for the American musical-theatre genius Stephen Sondheim (Aug 17); and a celebration of the music of Leonard Bernstein (Sep 5), who was a visiting conductor himself in the ’87 and ’88 seasons.
A lot of Americans, you might have noticed. And indeed it’s a bumper year for US talent at the Proms. You can hear music by George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and John Adams, whose fabulous orchestral miniature “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” has become a Proms staple. There are major contemporary compositions by Eric Whitacre and Jonathan Newman, and by Arlene Sierra, who features in one of the many chamber music Proms in Cadogan Hall. And there’s plenty of performing talent from the States, too. The Boston Symphony Orchestra are tackling Mahler and Samuel Barber in late August, while Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will join the great Jeremy Denk for Henry Cowell’s piano concerto. Canadian-American Leila Josefowicz is back after a five-year Proms holiday to premiere the new violin concerto by Luca Francesconi, while the Emerson String Quartet will be making their Proms debut.
Perhaps most prominent, though, is Marin Alsop. In 2013, the American conductor became the first woman to helm the Last Night of the Proms, and she’s doing it again this year. Listen out for Morton Gould’s “Boogie Woogie Etude”, a medley from The Sound of Music, and a pinch more Copland as she brings the flavour of America to this very British cultural institution.
Best of all, you don’t even need easy access to the Royal Albert Hall to get the best of the Proms: you can listen to every concert live on the BBC Radio 3 website.
