Proms 2026 Beethoven’s Ninth

Genre-defying South African cellist Abel Selaocoe returns as soloist in the UK premiere of American composer Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths – inspired by her late mother, the poet and playwright Robbie McCauley. The concert opens with Bach’s mighty Fantasia and Fugue in G minor in Andrew Davis’s colourful orchestral arrangement. After the interval comes the monumental power of Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony: a musical cry for freedom and brotherhood that culminates in the radiant ‘Ode to Joy’.

Leah Hawkins © Curtis Brown