Proms 2024 Premieres Span Stephenson, Kurtág, Adès
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- BBC Proms 2024 opens Friday at the Royal Albert Hall, with Radio 3 and the BBC Symphony Orchestra launching eight weeks of programming that stretches across the hall and beyond.
- Josephine Stephenson's "That the Sunrise Not Leave Us Unmoved" receives its world premiere on First Night, paired on 20 July with Jessie Montgomery's cello concerto "These Righteous Paths," written for Abel Selaocoe.
- György Kurtág's "Stele" — a 1994 Berlin Philharmonic commission the composer describes as "someone lying wounded on a battlefield" seeing "a very clear, very blue sky" — is performed by the BBC Symphony under Sakari Oramo on 22 July.
- Kristine Tjøgersen's "Between Trees," inspired by forest fungal interconnections and opening with the sound of squirrels eating nuts, is performed by the London Philharmonic under Edward Gardner on 27 July.
- The season includes two triple concertos: Édith Canat de Chizy's "Skyline" for three percussionists and timpani on 18 August, and Gwilym Simcock's concerto for BBC Young Musician alumni Jess Gillam, Ben Goldscheider, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason on 6 September.
- Thomas Adès conducts the National Youth Orchestra in "Purgatorio" on 8 August; a few days later, Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in "Inferno" and the UK premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's "Revolución Diamantina."
Why it matters: Contemporary composers from Stephenson and Tjøgersen to Adès and Ortiz gain rare Proms premieres — a platform that has historically broken new orchestral works to mass audiences. The 2024 season also delivers a notable LA Phil appearance under Dudamel and period-instrument Mahler from the Mahler Academy Orchestra, broadening the standard Proms mix beyond the headline new commissions.
