Omnibus at the Proms

Synopsis

Introduced by Jane Glover Tonight's concert, the second of six BBC1 visits to this year's Proms, features the internationally acclaimed London Sinfonietta in a programme of music intimately connected with Benjamin Britten. First comes The Wild Rumpus from Where the Wild Things Are, composed by one of Britten's proteges and a current director of the Aldburgh Festival, Oliver Knussen. It is followed by the television premiere of a sinfonietta commission, Suns Dance by Britten's former colleague and pupil, Colin Matthews. The composer sees it as 'an attempt to portray energy of a high order', and the score has already been incorporated by ASHLEY PAGE into a new piece for the Royal Ballet. The programme finishes with the suite arranged by Steuart Bedford from Britten's last opera, Death in Venice. In the interval the Britten scholar Donald Mitchell talks to Jane Glover about the composer's last years.