BBC Proms 2026: The Best Bits
After 58 days, 86 concerts, more than 3,000 performers, and around 300,000 audience members and 70,000 £8 Promming tickets sold, the 2026 BBC Proms season is drawing to a close.
In the BBC’s 99th season as custodian of the world’s greatest classical music festival, audiences all across the country have enjoyed everything from spectacular orchestral blockbusters and landmark anniversaries to unforgettable debuts and musical surprises.
Before the Last Night celebrations, let’s look back at some of the standout moments from this year’s festival.
Launching the world’s greatest classical music festival
Aaron Copland’s emphatic Fanfare for the Common Man opened the 2026 Proms season in electrifying fashion, as conductor Dalia Stasevska led the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the first Prom of the summer.
Piano superstar Yunchan Lim delivered a breathtaking performance of Ravel’s glittering Piano Concerto in G major, before the orchestra, BBC Singers and Symphony Chorus united for French-British composer Josephine Stephenson’s new work That the sunrise not leave us unmoved.
The evening concluded with the first-ever Proms performance of For St Cecilia, Gerald Finzi’s richly layered tribute to the patron saint of music, scored for orchestra, chorus and soloists. In a surprise finale that brought the Royal Albert Hall to its feet, performers and audience joined for an unforgettable rendition of Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’, the unofficial anthem of the England Men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup journey.
The Proms goes prog
The Proms opening weekend also saw progressive rock music enjoy a triumphant moment in the spotlight.
The BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Robert Ames were joined by an all-star line up of prog rock legends, including Guy Garvey, Vanessa Haynes, Carl Palmer, Gruff Rhys and Jane Weaver.
Audiences were treated to symphonic reimaginings of some of the genre’s most iconic works, from ELP’s epic take on Fanfare for the Common Man to Mike Oldfield’s landmark Tubular Bells brought to life with narration by Matt Berry.
Spain triumphant
On the same night that Spain lifted the Men’s FIFA World Cup trophy, the Spanish National Orchestra made its Proms debut with a programme celebrating many of the country’s most beloved orchestral works.
Acclaimed guitarist Rafael Aguirre shone in Joaquín Rodrigo’s timeless guitar concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez. The orchestra and its conductor David Afkham then turned to two Ravel masterpieces: the spirited Alborada del gracioso and the hypnotic, ever-popular Boléro.
Completing the programme was music from Manuel de Falla’s colourful ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, a fitting showcase of Spanish musical flair.
It's mint up north
Middlesbrough Town Hall kicked off the Proms’ weekend of festivities in the North East for the first of our Proms Across the UK. Folk duo The Unthanks joined forces with the Royal Northern Sinfonia for an evening of magical musical storytelling, complete with clog dancing and a host of special guests including Radiohead drummer Philip Selway, Mercury Prize-winning band English Teacher and vocalist Jodie Nicholson.
Also taking place at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead and The Fire Station in Sunderland was a packed programme featuring BBC Introducing artists, a performance of Morton Feldman’s Minimalist masterpiece Crippled Symmetry, bold dynamism from Nadine Shah, a choral convention on the Glasshouse Concourse and classical favourites by Mozart and Mendelssohn.
Going to Graceland
What could be easily mistaken for a party, a packed-out Late Night Prom marked the 40th anniversary of Paul Simon’s Grammy Award-winning album Graceland, in a joyous celebration led by Simon’s original collaborators on the record, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, making their all-singing, all-dancing Proms debut.
They were joined on stage by an impressive line-up of guest artists, including James Bay, Laura Mvula, Flyte and the lively Nu Civilisation Orchestra led by conductor Peter Edwards.
Together, they brought Graceland to life with lively performances of some of its best-loved songs, including ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ and ‘You Can Call Me Al’.
Bristol takes flight
The Proms landed in Bristol the same weekend the city held its International Balloon Fiesta, with a wealth of concerts adding to the festive atmosphere across the city.
Among them was a programme of Russian classics from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a special live edition of Radio 3’s jazz show ’Round Midnight, a Relaxed Prom from the National Open Youth Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles performed by Tenebrae, and Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments.
Also taking place was one of two Proms celebrating the 90th birthday of American composer Steve Reich at the Bristol Beacon. Featuring contemporary dance and immersive lighting, Paraorchestra, a collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians, performed Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, where players were distributed on plinths across Beacon Hall among the audience.
Listen to the Steve Reich at 90 (Bristol) Prom on BBC Sounds
The Devil has all the best tunes
Mid-season at the Royal Albert Hall, over 150 teenagers amassed on stage for the annual National Youth Orchestra Prom, this time in a thrilling musical descent to the Underworld and back.
Conductor Thomas Adès led the orchestra for the first time since 2017 in electrifying performances of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1 and Adès’s own composition, the Purgatorio from his Grammy Award-winning ballet Dante.
The evening culminated in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, ending with its wild, nightmarish ‘Witches’ Sabbath’.
A Visit from Hollywood
The Los Angeles Philharmonic returned to the Proms for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century and did not disappoint with two exhilarating sold-out concerts led by legendary conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Across the two nights, they took on Beethoven’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies and the terrifying first panel from Thomas Adès’s Dante, Inferno.
Receiving its UK premiere was Gabriela Ortiz’s politically charged Revolución diamantina, a groove-driven contemporary ballet inspired by the feminist protest of Mexico’s 2019 Glitter Revolution.
Celebrating the Prince of Soul
The Royal Albert Hall rang out with the sounds of soul, Motown, gospel, R&B and funk in a special celebration of one of music’s most influential songwriters, Marvin Gaye.
In a special tribute to the Prince of Soul, an all-star cast of vocalists joined the BBC Concert Orchestra and Edwin Outwater, including Luke James, Vula Malinga, BAELY, Cherise, Wayne Hernandez and the LJ Singers.
The concert programme spanned new orchestral arrangements of songs from Gaye’s entire catalogue, from music of intimacy and protest to the physical and spiritual, including classic hits such as ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ and ‘What’s Going On’.
A force to wake the dead
Demanding four individual brass choirs, 10 timpanists and hundreds of singers, Berlioz’s colossal Requiem proved another landmark performance from the London Symphony Orchestra at the Proms.
For 80 minutes the vast Grande messe des morts thundered through the Royal Albert Hall, realised on an epic scale by the LSO and BBC Symphony choruses, the London Symphony Orchestra and soloist Julien Henric, all under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano.
The surround-sound of the brass, terrifying cymbal crashes and earth-shaking volume of the orchestra and chorus was an experience that few Prommers will be forgetting in a hurry.
Time for a Hoe-Down
Proms favourite Marin Alsop returned to the festival to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in a jubilant celebration of American music, 250 years on from the American Declaration of Independence.
From the urban rhythms of Bernstein’s West Side Story and On the Town to the all-American landscapes of The Big Country and Appalachian Spring, audiences also were treated to Gershwin’s jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue with the Marcus Roberts Trio.
There was a rare performance of Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1, a piece dedicated to Marin Alsop and a feminist musical response to Copland’s original Fanfare for the Common Man.
Operatic drama from the Big Apple
One of the world’s greatest orchestras, the Metropolitan Opera’s Met Orchestra of New York City made its Proms debut at the festival in a much-anticipated double concert appearance.
Led by its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the first concert’s thrilling all-Strauss programme included the Der Rosenkavalier suite and the epic tone-poem Ein Heldenleben, with the acclaimed South African soprano Elza van den Heever joining onstage for the electrifying final scene from Salome.
The next day, star mezzo-soprano and former Last Night of the Proms soloist Joyce DiDonato brought her luminous voice to Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, alongside the composer’s nature-inspired Symphony No. 4 and Kaija Saariaho’s atmospheric Lumière et pesanteur.
Be Our Guest
One of the season’s most eagerly awaited Proms saw the very best of Broadway and the West End join the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sarah Hicks for a truly epic celebration of Alan Menken’s music for Disney.
Vocalists Stewart Clarke, Ben Forster, Lucie Jones, Sam Oladeinde, Celinde Schoenmaker and Marisha Wallace along with the stellar forces of the National Youth Music Theatre performed beloved greats from Alan Menken’s classic Disney scores, from The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast to Enchanted and more.
There was no stopping the whole of the Royal Albert Hall dancing along to ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Zero to Hero’ in what will surely go down as one of the most memorable and enjoyable Proms in recent years.
Berlin Brilliance
Ecstatic audiences welcomed the return of the Berlin Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor to the Proms.
Their first Prom paired two Romantic orchestral classics: Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations and a gripping performance of Tchaikovsky’s dark and fateful Symphony No. 4.
In the second concert, acclaimed violinist Augustin Hadelich brought warmth and elegance to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with his singing lyricism. The evening concluded with the mystical intensity of Scriabin’s Third Symphony, as the orchestra and conductor navigated its intoxicating sound-world in a thrilling battle of wills.
A legend returns
Few Proms this season have generated as much excitement as the return of Martha Argerich, widely considered as one of the world’s greatest pianists.
Sixty years after making her Proms debut at the Last Night in 1966, Argerich returned to the festival at the age of 85 to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Munich Philharmonic.
Following a rapturous reception and no fewer than five curtain calls, she delighted the audience with a dazzling encore in music from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, played as a piano duet with conductor Lahav Shani.
In the second half, Shani led the Munich Philharmonic in a mighty performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4.
A treat of a triple concerto
Towards the end of the Proms season, the three 2016 finalists of the BBC Young Musician competition – saxophonist Jess Gillam, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and horn player Ben Goldscheider – reunited a decade on for the world premiere of a specially commissioned Triple Concerto by Gwilym Simcock, a work brimming with groove, energy and joy.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo bookended the concert with Britten’s vibrant The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Dvořák’s ever-popular ‘New World’ Symphony, bringing the concert to a thrilling conclusion.
