This is always an exciting day for Radio 3: the moment when the truly salivating line-up of concerts and events that make up the world’s biggest classical music festival is revealed, and we begin in earnest the incredibly detailed planning that goes into broadcasting every Prom live. The technical challenges are huge ‒ in the course of a single day the team of highly skilled studio managers might be called upon to capture anything from a solo violin to a brand new contemporary work for a 100-piece orchestra ‒ and things like how many microphones, how many miles of cable, and exactly how long it’s going to take to reset the stage between the main evening Proms and complicated late night events need to be thought about now.

For the production team it’s a case of working out how best to provide that all-important context for our listeners: why you really should tune in to this performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, why the Aurora orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is going to be unlike any you’ve ever heard before (it really is), what fresh insights come to light as a result of hearing all of Prokofiev’s piano concertos in the course of one evening, and why the work of Pierre Boulez is so visionary and vital to our understanding of today’s musical world. A crucial part of this context is of course the fantastic line-up of Proms Extra events over at the Royal College of Music, where every day a carefully chosen panel of experts is there to guide you through that night’s offering; these are then edited straight afterwards and broadcast in the interval of the Prom. It’s a neat idea, but as with all these things, planning is everything.

There’s a sense in which you could say the Proms are all in a day’s work for us – Radio 3 broadcasts a concert live pretty much every night of the week, after all – but there’s something very special about de-camping to Kensington for the summer. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of the first night, the famous queue snaking all the way down the steps and probably round the corner too, the sight of our BBC trucks parked outside Door 9, the familiar smell back-stage at the Royal Albert Hall, the incredible air of anticipation in the Hall itself… and above all, the knowledge that you’ve got a whole eight magical weeks of world-class music-making to look forward to. It’s a huge amount of work, for sure, but a challenge each and every one of us relishes. Bring it on.

 

• BBC Proms
• BBC Radio 3
• Royal Albert Hall

Remember and replay the music and get recommendations from the experts

BBC Playlister will bring a range of benefits to Proms lovers. 

Every work played in the Proms will be featured on a programme page where you can listen to the work in full or save it to your personal playlist.

Radio 3 and Proms presenters, Katie Derham, Sean Rafferty, Petroc Trelawny, Suzy Klein and Clemency Burton-Hill will offer their personal recommendations of Proms performances in their Playlists.  You will be able to listen to all these performances by clicking on them in the presenter’s list.

Enjoy finding out more about the Proms Music and Themes with BBC iWonder.   

BBC iWonder guides are a new approach pioneered by the BBC to provide thought-provoking answers to the questions sparked in your everyday life.  Guides include video, audio, graphics and text.  There will be six new guides produced specially for the Proms this year. 

The first guide is called ‘Why do we think Elgar’s music sounds English?’ It is presented by Petroc Trelawny and is live now to coincide with The Kingdom performance tonight 

The Proms website has all the information about the season and links to buy tickets.

Finally remember you can join in with the Proms on social media

Follow @bbcproms, @bbcradio3 on Twitter and like our Facebook pages (BBCProms and BBCRadio3) for news, photos, commentary and conversation about the festival.

So when I was in London this summer I had the idea of showing what happens on and offstage and also outside at the Proms through Google Glass. Luckily the BBC also liked the idea and suggested the National Youth Orchestra Prom, which, as an old (literally...) NYO member, I was thrilled about!

• Click Here to watch the results of my day with Glass

It was not without its challenges - I filmed so much that I had to keep finding a socket to recharge my Glass. I got some very funny looks from the Promenaders whilst wearing them in the Arena. It was also hard to edit the film as there were so many wonderful moments that it was painful to cut any of them out.

I went to say hi to the Radio 3 Team and they all tried on Glass and "ok Glass, take a picture“d each other. Petroc even tweeted an impressive photo of him wearing them...

It was an absolute pleasure being around the NYO- there is nothing like the energy that this orchestra creates onstage and off. It felt like yesterday that I had been a member, where DID the time go??

Thanks to the BBC and the NYO for the great day at the Proms!

visit Sarah's website - www.sarah-willis.com

follow her on Twitter - @hornsarahberlin

more from this Prom - watch video highlights from Prom 38

 

Did you know that, as well as listening to highlights from this year’s Proms, you can watch previews and complete works?

 

We’ve assembled these highlights in Collections which you can access direct from the BBC Proms website. Of course, broadcasts on TV and radio are available for seven days via the BBC iPlayer, but for the duration of the Proms and for a limited time after the season is over, Collections offer the opportunity for you to go straight to the music which interests you most, for extended periods.

 

Watch highlights from the BBC Proms 2013

Proms Chamber Concerts

BBC Two’s Proms Extra 2013

Wagner at the Proms

Britten at the Proms

Piano Music at the Proms

New Music at the Proms

Watch highlights from the Doctor Who Proms

Polish Music at the Proms

Tchaikovsky at the Proms

 

We’d like to invite your feedback on this way of opening up the music in the Proms - we’re especially interested in how you find your way to the audio and video we present from Proms concerts.

 

Please send us your comments by replying to this blog post - we’ll read everything but I’m afraid we can’t promise to reply to any questions – but will try our best.

 

Here are some questions to get you thinking:

 

1.        Before reading this blog post did you know about any of the collections of audio and video (eg ‘New Music at the Proms’, Britten at the Proms’ , ‘Wagner at the Proms’ etc)

 

2.        Have you listened to or watched any of the online  audio or video from the Proms this season?

 

If you answered ‘ yes’ to question 2

 

 

3.        Do you normally come to the BBC site looking for something in particular from the Proms – an individual concert or artist perhaps?

 

4.        How useful are the Collections to you?

 

5.        What other ways do you use to find online audio and video from the Proms?

 

If you can please do let us know whether you use the desktop site or mobile version or both.

 

Thank you!

 

• BBC Proms
• Proms Listen and Watch
• BBC Radio 3

 

• Find full details of the Light Organ Prom
• BBC Proms 2013
• Richard Hills

 

BBC Symphony Orchestra general manager Paul Hughes reports from the rehearsals for Saturday night's Prom performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

I’m sitting in a fairly empty, cool Royal Albert Hall for the first of two general rehearsals for Saturday’s Prom performance of Wagner’s magnificent Tristan und Isolde. Conductor Semyon Bychkov is on stage with production colleagues testing out the offstage positions for the brass in Act 1 and Brangäne in Act 2. We’re used to this and the orchestra sit patiently waiting for the full rehearsal to being while the decision is made finally to place them in the hall but behind the main platform. I guess you’d call this offstage-ish…  Preparing an opera of this scale was always going to be challenging and we have had to take the change of two cast members in our stride, but how fortunate we have been to secure the services of Robert Dean Smith as Tristan and Mihoko Fujimaya as Brangäne. Two highly experienced and delightful performers who have fitted into the team wonderfully and seem unfazed by the radio mics and TV cameras recording them.

The rehearsal is now underway, our colleagues from BBC FOUR are rehearsing the camera shots for the TV broadcast and the exquisitely moving prelude starts to fill every part of the hall. This is my 15th consecutive Proms season and I love this time particularly, when the final rehearsal is taking place, colleagues are scattered around the hall, moving to get a different view, a different sound, always surprised when the smallest sound carries to the gallery. The chorus consists of men from the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus and they are magnificent – so good in fact, that Semyon is sending them home at the break which duly arrives: Act 1 has completed and we’re waiting to start Act 2. Suddenly the stage is invaded by a team of flamenco dancers and their crew trying something out for their Proms later tonight and I am reminded just how much of a ‘production line’ the Proms is – an astonishing feat of planning and logistics that relies on the consummate team-work that my colleagues display every day.

Semyon looks happy; the principals have been singing in a barely-audible whisper up to now: Violeta Urmana, our Isolde, singing mostly an octave lower than the part is written and demonstrating a remarkable mezzo register, the match of the creaminess of her upper voice. Known as ‘marking’ and designed to save wear and tear on the voice, this is still frustrating for our radio colleagues who are desperate to balance the sound and hear what it will really sound like. Ann McKay, our Chief Producer, reassures me that the soloists will sing out enough after the break for her to capture a good balance. And TV seem generally cool.

Part two of the rehearsal starts up and there is a discussion as to where the horn section should sit in order to guarantee perfect ensemble with their woodwind colleagues. They move directly behind the clarinets and bassoons and if not everyone is happy, they accept the move and we continue. I had forgotten just how amazing the love duet is in Act 2, even with two protagonists still mostly whispering their impassioned endearments. Brangäne delivers her haunting solo from a position just behind the bust of Sir Henry Wood which, until the spotlight finds her, calls to mind an operatic ventriloquist. It’s a tricky passage and she delivers it flawlessly. And then it’s time to stop. The stage is cleared with super speedy efficiency whilst our colleagues from the BBC Philharmonic are anxious to get set up and figure out the logistics of their flamenco number. That’s the job of the Proms, it’s magic I think – from Wagner to Flamenco and all part of a day’s work. I love it!
 

BBC Proms

Prom – Tristan und Isolde

BBC Radio 3

Of course, Sakari is not the first non-Brit chief at the BBCSO to serve up this home produce; in the 1980s Gennadi Rozhdestvensky performed Elgar and Vaughan Williams, as Leonard Slatkin often did - indeed his recording of the Sea Symphony was selected as a BBC Music Magazine cover CD. Even our previous (Czech) conductor Jirí Belohlávek tackled music by Britten, Tippett and Maxwell Davies. Should only British conductors be good at it? A moot point. Our own Colin Davis was arguably one of the greatest ever interpreters of Sibelius and Berlioz, likewise Thomas Beecham. Surely it can work both ways? Music is, after all, just music.

On my travels I sometimes encounter resistance to music from these shores (even from British professional musicians), as if it is not fashionable to like it, or it is deemed second rate; 'Brahms and Beethoven did it so much better,' someone once said to me. Perhaps too it is in the British nature to put ourselves down.

My late father use to recall an elderly Vaughan Williams attending a performance of the Sea Symphony at the Royal Academy of Music in the early 1950s. Apparently the composer was amazed that, 'Someone is still playing music I wrote 50 years ago'.

Well, the world is a big place and I for one am happy to play any of the symphonies of Elgar, RVW, Bax or Rubbra: they make a pleasant change from yet another Beethoven cycle (indisputably great though that music is); and when it is in the hands of someone devoid of Brit cultural baggage, but with a sensitivity towards the composer, then I'm all for a fresh approach.

Sakari already holds the Elgar Society medal in recognition for his proselytising on behalf of that composer, and the way the rehearsals are going for Friday night, I think we will not be at sea at all but in very safe hands.

In this video you can hear Sakari talking about Harmony, the First Night commission from Julian Anderson, a composer Sakari knows well ...

• First Night of the Proms
• Proms website
• BBC Symphony Orchestra website

We’ll have some more blog posts from Chorus members throughout this year’s Proms season, so do keep checking back. In the meantime, if you’re an experienced choral singer and think that you’d like to be on the Royal Albert Hall stage with David, Miranda and the rest of the BBC Symphony Chorus at next year’s BBC Proms, then you’ll find information about auditioning for the Chorus on our website.

• First Night of the Proms
• Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage
• Last Night of the Proms
• BBC Symphony Chorus 

• Find details of the Urban Prom
• Read Jules Buckley’s biography
• Proms 2013
• BBC Symphony Orchestra
  

The Berlin Philharmonie

BBC Symphony Orchestra sub-principal viola Phil Hall and his colleagues have been in Berlin this week. Phil sends this report from Number 1, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße (aka the Philharmonie) ...

The Maritim hotel near the famous Philharmonie is large. I know it's large because my room number is 4129 and it is so far from the lift it's practically in Leipzig... I wonder about hiring a bike to get to breakfast ...

Usually after the Last Night of the Proms, the BBC Symphony Orchestra gets a short break but this year we have to wait a little longer for our post-Proms recuperation. As I arrive at Heathrow Terminal 5 on Sunday afternoon I meet several bleary-eyed colleagues feeling a bit battered from the night before. We are off to Berlin to give the premiere there of Nixon in China. Unfortunately the legendary German efficiency breaks down upon our arrival: 'The bus is broken. We will bring another to jump-start.' Another bus comes but fails to breathe life into ours. 'We will try a Biggerbus...' The bigger bus also fails to resuscitate our bus. So we take all the suitcases off and pile on to the working Biggerbus.

The cast of Nixon in China (photographed at the Royal Albert Hall)

At the rehearsal, John Adams is still full of energy (how does he do it??) and praise for our efforts in the Prom last week which he describes as 'a gas'. The stage is smaller than in London and the strings are all reduced by a desk. The acoustics of the Philharmonie are incredibly lively and everything seems too loud after the Albert Hall. But gradually we adjust to the hall as John tops and tails the awkward corners his multiple time signatures throw up, and some small adjustments are made to the stage directions.

We seek lunch near the Brandenburg Gate in beautiful late summer sunshine and my tour guide (principal viola Norbert Blume) chillingly confesses that he is lost as we have strayed into the former East Berlin, a place he was forbidden to go when growing up in the city. There is just time for a reviving nap and back to the hall. I peruse the Berlin Philharmonic notice-board (they have the luxury of playing every concert 3 times it seems) and bump into Sir Simon Rattle. He comes to the concert and loves it. As do we. It has been fun working with John again and the orchestra and singers give him a cheery farewell on the plane as he heads back to New York and then home to San Francisco.

Looking back over the whole Prom season this last week stands out as not only one of the busiest but also as quite an emotional one, what with the Olympian Last Night and Jiri Belohlávek's departure. I think I'll need a few days off to recover before we go to Bucharest at the end of the month.

The Olympians and Paralympians join the Last Night of the Proms

Prom 59 - Cast of The Broadway Sound

Jan Younghusband, BBC Commissioning Editor, Music & Events, sums up the 2012 Proms TV coverage and explains why the John Wilson Broadway Prom was broadcast incomplete ...

The television team all agreed the other day that we can't believe it's already the last week of the Proms. It has flown by this year. I just received the usual 'How have we done so far?' email about the viewing figures which I confess I opened with trepidation as I assumed no-one would have time to watch because of the amazing Olympics coverage and now the utterly inspiring Paralympics. But actually I was wrong. You have been watching, so many thanks to our audiences for being so faithful and appreciative this year, despite having many other calls on your TV viewing time.

We've had another interesting week with rights issues. We could not include the West Side Story balcony scene in the John Wilson Broadway Musicals TV Prom last Saturday night on BBC Two because we didn't have the dialogue rights. We were then granted the dialogue rights at the last moment after the programme was delivered, and tried to put the clip up on line, but then realised that for this special selection of music and lyrics, the TV rights didn't cover online rights! So it was a mess frankly and we apologise for this. We appreciate it was really disappointing for our audience, and we were really upset about it too. We did everything we could and just couldn't make it work.

We've had a few rights problems this year, usually around musicals, and actually they are very interesting things, because they come in lots of rights segments: the music, the words to the songs, the dialogue, the book, the stage rights, the film rights - these are not necessarily owned by one person, but many different parties, and naturally the rights holders want to protect the exposure of these treasured works. It's a complicated business. It has always been, and probably always will be, very difficult to get permission to televise musicals but we will continue to try because we do understand you want to see them.

Its a terrific final week, with Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra last Sunday, and the Desert Island Discs 75th anniversary concert last night, both available on the BBC iPlayer. The St Louis Symphony performed on Tuesday and on Wednesday, John Adams conducted his Nixon in China. We have a new documentary about him coming out in the New Year on BBC Four. Oh whoops, not sure I meant to tell you that yet! Don't tell everyone!

Tonight there is the Vienna Phil followed by the wonderful Staff Benda Bilili late night at 10.15pm, all live on Radio 3. We are televising Friday's Vienna Philharmonic concert, with Haydn's Symphony No.104 and Strauss's Alpine Symphony conducted by Bernard Haitink on BBC Four.

Then on Saturday night we are filming the Last Night in 3D (and 2D) for the first time, so you can watch it on BBC Two and BBC One in the usual way or you can watch it in 3D on the BBC HD channel (but don't forget the 3D glasses and you need a 3D-ready TV). It's in cinemas in 3D all over the country, so please check if it's local to you. Can't wait to hear our very own BBC Young Musician, Nicola Benedetti play the Bruch Concerto and also what a treat it will be to hear the tenor Joseph Calleja. On the Last Night, the Nations have their own Last Night Concerts and traditionally we go round the Nations during the last night coverage. This year we are making a special programme for BBC Four - the Best of the Last Night - which will be broadcast the following Friday, 14th September on BBC Four.

I wanted to say special thank you to John and Jenny, who live in a caravan with the TV trucks outside the Royal Albert Hall all summer, looking after everything. And the weather has been so horrible all summer, so not a lot of fun for them. Also they very kindly look after my bike gear while I am in the concert, so thanks for that! And of course the wonderful presenters for doing another great job this year - Katie, Suzy, Charlie, Petroc and Samira - and all the guests who come to talk about the music, both musicians and musical experts, we are most grateful to you.

Have a great week and don't think it's all over because the week after the Proms, the Piano season begins on Radio 3 and BBC Four - we announced the details of this yesterday, so watch out in the press for what's on.

Find details of the Last Night of the Proms

The experimental panoramic camera

Silvia is a colleague who works in the BBC's Audio & Music division. She recently made a personal visit to the Proms, on the night of the Vaughan Williams Prom which featured his Symphonies 3, 4 and 5 . This coincided with the installation of a panoramic camera, being used for the first time in a live Prom concert environment as part of a BBC Research & Development project (more on this in a future blog…). Here, Silvia records her impressions from backstage - where a piano was being prepared for the following evening's John Cage centenary concert - and in conversation with the Promenaders out front.

When I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall about two hours before the concert, the men in the Hall were just wheeling a piano about that had just been 'prepared' with screws in the strings to change the sound of it for the following evening's performance of John Cage's Concerto for Prepared Piano.

A huge floor area next to the stage was opened and the was lowered down to be stored underneath the stage in a sort of piano park where about five pianos were sitting peacefully next to each other. I then noticed that a few camera men were gathering around an amazing camera that is called Omni-Camera or Panoramic Camera which has a larger than normal camera dynamic range. It sits on a large box about 2 metres high and has six cameras pointing at angled mirrors that capture a picture of the stage and Hall in a 180 degrees radius without distorting the picture at the edges.

The camera shows the picture in more detail in the black and white or dark and bright areas of the viewing object. It also has a ball-shaped microphone on top, named Eigen-Mike, which has 32 microphones in it that can 'audio' zoom in when a particular scene is being focused on. Apparently, the whole thing is six times better than HD. The whole project to develop this prototype camera is EU funded and has the BBC working with Fraunhofer/Heinrich Hertz Institute, a Research and Development company from Germany, and other companies working in the field to develop this technology. The project is called 'Fascinate' - I was given a very interesting explanation from Hannah Fraser of the BBC Research & Development department and someone from Fraunhofer about the camera and how it works. They then took me underneath the Arena and showed me the 'behind the scenes' part of it. German colleagues from various companies showed me the screen with the picture the camera can take and it was truly amazing to see the Royal Albert Hall's stage and nearby seats in absolute straightness in 180 degrees, without any distortion.

The processing part of the camera and other equipment was located with colleagues downstairs and they could zoom in and choose close up views with a trackball. The camera is being trialled for Sports and cultural events in Europe and a cinema that can show the relevant film results in a 180 degree view is located in Berlin. They are also working on a mobile prototype of it to take to live events. For example, virtual directing can be programmed into the camera at a football match, where the programmed camera follows the ball ...or fouls! Those different scenes can be streamed next to each other and it's guaranteed that the camera films every occurrence on the pitch. One has to say though that the development of the viewing technology will also have to be developed to truly appreciate this new recording technology. The people I spoke to all praised the team spirit and the good collaboration of everyone on the project. It sounded really positive and innovative, a vision of the future.

I talked to a lot of people: The first couple I spoke to had come down from Derbyshire just for the music. They loved Vaughan Williams and made a trip of it and stayed with relatives in London. Another gentleman (who lives in Cambridge and commutes to London) who stood in the arena is a season ticket holder and decided to 'prom' it for this particular concert (i.e. stand in the Arena) where he wanted to try the acoustics from that space. I asked him about the mix of old and new music during the Proms season and he said it was mostly interesting to hear new music but he wasn't so keen on atonal or dissonant music - but he understood why composers tried that way of making music. We had quite a philosophical discussion …

The German steward who showed us to our seats was charming and so keen on classical music that for the concerts she really wants to be in the Hall for, she takes the day off. Combining a love of music with work - perfect!

The man sitting next to me also came to hear the rare combination of three Vaughan Williams symphonies and fell into a sort of meditation with his eyes closed in the first half. Like all the others he was also very knowledgeable about the music. Especially so the young man I talked to afterwards when I picked up my bike and he was also just about to cycle off. He is an amateur musician (violin and piano) but works as a software engineer during the day. He immediately talked about the nuances of Vaughan Williams' music that you can hear in a liove concerts but which might not be detectable on a CD - he used detailed musical language when talking about the concert. It was truly wonderful how much the people who go to the Proms express their love for the music. Looking around in the auditorium I saw people literally moving their bodies to the music. Either they were nodding their heads in rhythm or slightly swaying their upper bodies; and when talking to them I could also see how much they were moved emotionally by the music. The wonderful thing is that music is universal and touches us all in one way or another. I had a wonderful evening with a mixture of looking behind the scenes and talking to the audience. The success of the Proms is also obvious by the sheer number of people trying to catch a bus or going to the Underground station once the concert has finished … about 5000 people making their way home after an enjoyable evening at the Proms. Just wonderful.

• See more of Silvia's pictures
• Visit the Proms website

The performers of Ligeti's Poème Symphonique, relaxing in the Royal Albert Hall Green Room before their performance.

I've recently been working with Matthew on the relaunch of a new Radiophonic Workshop and we've been working with The Space on a number of other related projects. For the live remix of Prom 44 Matthew had a clear vision of what he wanted, and he invited some of the members of the new Radiophonic Workshop, along with some people for the London Sinfonietta to help create the composition. There were 12 volunteers in total, we were each issued with a clipboard and pencil, and were asked to bring along a smart phone - it was the first time I've be told to make sure my phone was fully charged before attending a classical concert!

The piece, Small, Smaller, Smallest, is a comment on the way we all consume music today, using small handheld devices often with very iffy sound quality. Also how the ripping, file sharing and free download culture has changed the relationship between the audience, the performers and the composer. Finally how the mobile phone has changed the culture of concert going (with the danger of random ring-tones going off in concerts), and the change in mind-set we have when we attend concerts (we choose to stay in touch and share our experiences by social media, even as we listen or watch). The piece also democratises the composition process, inviting not only the 12 volenteers, but the whole audience to contribute.

The clipboard was used to make a note of the recorded sections and are effectively a score of the composition.

The live re-mix would consist of recordings of the evening's performances made by 12 volunteers each using a mobile phone to make one short recording from the build up to the evening, and one recording from each of the 6 performances. The 12 volunteers would be situated in different places in and around the audience. The audience at the Royal Albert Hall would also be asked to contribute to the piece by sending themselves a SMS text message when cued by André Ridder, the conductor, therefore creating a ripple of around 800 SMS alert sounds to accompany the smartphone recordings. The original plan was for the 12 volunteers to play their 7 recordings from where they were located in the audience, but some testing revealed that Radio 3's microphones wouldn't pick up the mobile phones, so each volunteer made their way to the stage after Cage's 4'33 and was given a microphone.

After spending a geeky few minutes comparing field recording apps we set off to mingle with the audience and start our recordings. My choices for the 7 clips ranged from the backstage 3-minute warning to the Sinfonietta tuning up before a performance of Louis Andriessen's De Snelheid. Not to mention a 10 second clip of John Cage's 4'33. The performance of Small, Smaller, Smallest on stage worked well; the structure of the concert clearly audible in our performance and, though it was hard to hear how it sounded from the stage, feedback from both the live audience, and people listening on Radio 3 was very positive.

View from the stage of the Royal Albert Hall

My experiments with sound tend to address more technical questions, but I very much enjoyed the sonic exploration of the live remix of Prom 44. The whole of Prom 44 is available to hear on iPlayer for a limited time.

Anthony Churnside is a technologist in the R&D audio team based at Salford

BBC Symphony Orchestra sub-principal viola Phil Hall says, if you've never heard the Gurrelieder, a treat awaits you on the iPlayer …

If there is one piece of music to rival the huge scale of the Olympic Closing Ceremony, then it has to be Schoenberg's epic cantata on Danish legends, Gurreleider.

I have loved this extraordinary piece since student days when people who had seen a rare performance of it would talk about it with awe and wonder, as if they had seen Bigfoot or the giant Bamyan Buddhas.

Fortunately in the last 20 years the BBC Symphony Orchestra has had the rare pleasure of performing it three times, twice at the Proms, and last Sunday night was the fourth. The reason it is seldom done is the expense - the orchestra is larger than that required for Mahler 8 and there are almost as many singers.

But what I love most is the sheer beauty of the music; magical intimate moments sit alongside barnstorming battles with a sunrise ending that turns my legs to jelly. Late Schoenberg can be box-office poison but this work is early, deeply Romantic; think Wagner orchestrated by Mahler and you are close to his amazing sound world. Actually Schoenberg took so long to orchestrate the piece (10 years) that his style had changed to dodecaphonic (twelve-tone, or tone-row) by the time of the premiere in Vienna in 1911. In fact he famously sat through it scowling and refused to bow to the audience despite a rave reception!

But if you haven't heard this beautiful behemoth I would strongly urge you to catch it on the iPlayer just in case your legs go to jelly at the end as well …

• Listen to Schoenberg's Gurrelieder
• Read the programme notes for the performance
• Visit the Proms website
  

The view from the Chorus - rehearsing in Colston Hall

Jon Parker is a member of the BBC Symphony Chorus. He wrote this post during rehearsals for Prom 23, which you can listen to online for the next four days. On Sunday he and the Chorus will be performing Schoenberg's extraordinary Gurrelieder in Prom 41 - Steve Bowbrick, Interactive Editor, Radio 3.

26th July: Piano Rehearsal.

While a certain torch is making its way towards Westminster, the BBC Symphony Chorus congregates in Maida Vale 2 for the piano rehearsal. To this point, we have had four rehearsals to learn Ireland's These Things Shall Be and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with our Chorus Director Stephen Jackson. For many, Belshazzar is an old friend while the Ireland is almost universally unknown. However we have worked on them in much the same way, with text, intonation and dynamics high on the agenda.

Tonight we meet Maestro Otaka. This is our chance to have some one-on-one time with him so we jump into the detail. It's certainly tiring, but enjoyable, and after a final pep talk from Stephen it's time to battle with the Tube.

29th July: BBC Symphony Chrous goes to Bristol.

Today we are in Colston Hall in Bristol to join up with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. We use the rehearsal to combine everything we have been learning with getting used to taking cues from the dense orchestral texture. For Maestro Otaka and the (now) two chorus directors it is the first stage of balancing the three groups. Lots to be done...

31st July.

General Rehearsal: The orchestra and chorus are joined by Jonathan Lemalu and London Brass to add the finishing touches. Our task is to get used to the acoustics and to get used to projecting the text all the way to the gallery. Maestro Otaka works through the programme before Adrian Partington, Chorus Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, gives us some final notes.

Concert: Being a relative newbie to the BBC Symphony Chorus this is only my twelfth Prom (!), but performing to a full house at the Royal Albert Hall remains nothing but thrilling. This has been in the diary as my Proms 2012 highlight since we performed Belshazzar with Edward Gardner in December. It's so much fun to sing! I challenge any performer not to have an ear-to-ear grin at the end of it. Inevitably, the concert is over in a flash, and so after saying farewell to our Welsh colleagues, it's back to normality. Rehearsals for Gurrelieder continue on Friday. Watch this space...

• Tickets for Gurrelieder, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Chorus and soloists, at the Proms can be bought online or you can buy a £5 Promenade ticket on the day from the box office at the Royal Albert Hall.
• Listen to Prom 23 online now in HD Sound or watch the BBC Four television broadcast on the iPlayer. Listen on Sunday to the live transmission of Gurrelieder in HD Sound on the Radio 3 web site.