The “Last Night of the Proms,” the conclusion of the eight-week summer concert series, traditionally offers audience-pleasing, popular classics in the first half, followed by a second half of British patriotic pieces (Arne’s Rule Britannia!, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, Parry’s Jerusalem). The audience-pleasers for the 2023 “Last Night” include Lise Davidsen singing “Dich, teure Halle” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser and “Vieni! t’affretta” from Verdi’s Macbeth; and Sheku-Kanneh Mason performing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Deep River and Max Bruch’s Kol nidrei—truly something for everyone with two of the brightest stars of classical music.
Last Night of the Proms
L-R: Lise Davidsen, Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Photo: Ollie Ali), Marin Alsop (Photo: Nancy Horowitz)
Playlist
Richard Strauss: Don Juan
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (arr. S. Parkin): Deep River
Max Bruch: Kol Nidrei
Richard Wagner: ‘Dich, teure Halle’ from Tannhäuser
Piero Mascagni: Easter Hymn; Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana
Giuseppe Verdi: ‘Nel dì della vittoria … Vieni! t’affretta!’ from Macbeth
Emmerich Kálmán: ‘Heia, heia, in den Bergen ist mein Heimatland’ from Die Csárdásfürstin
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Ária (Cantilena) from Bachianas brasileiras No. 5
Thomas Arne (arr. Sargent): Rule, Britannia!
Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (‘Land of Hope and Glory’)
Hubert Parry (orch. Elgar): Jerusalem
Arr. Britten: The National Anthem
Trad. (arr. Paul Campbell): Auld Lang Syne
Lise Davidsen, soprano
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
BBC Singers
Nicholas Chalmers, chorus-master
BBC Symphony Chorus
Neil Ferris chorus-master
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conductor