BBC Proms 2022 - First Night of the Proms (320kbps .mp3)

Live at the BBC Proms: Verdi's Requiem opens the season. Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO, two choirs, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Jennifer Johnston, David Junghoon Kim and Kihwan Sim.

Presented by Georgia Mann and Tom Service, live from the Royal Albert Hall in London. Georgia and Tom are joined in the box by Flora Willson, expert in 19th-century music and culture, to chat about the powerful work in this evening's concert, and look forward to the eight weeks of exciting music making ahead.

01. Verdi – Requiem
01a. Introduction to Verdi’s Requiem
01b. Outro commentary

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, soprano
Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano
David Junghoon Kim, tenor
Kihwan Sim, bass
BBC Symphony Chorus
Crouch End Festival Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Giuseppe Verdi had a complicated relationship with religion: he asked to be buried with just ‘one priest, one candle, one cross’. But as a born dramatist, he knew how to tell a great story – and his colossal Requiem encompasses death, rebirth and the end of the world itself, in music that simply blazes with passion and power. Now, in the vast spaces of the Royal Albert Hall, Sakari Oramo assembles two choruses, a multinational team of solo singers (including 2021 Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize winner Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha) and the full forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and prepares to raise the roof. A truly spectacular First Night of the 2022 BBC Proms.

There will be no interval.

Broadcast: 15 July 2022