Prom 22 – A London Symphony

Part of the BBC Proms.

Following on from the Halle’s Paris-inspired programme (Prom 16) comes a corresponding focus on London. Andrew Manze and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra open with Haydn’s lively, assertive final symphony – composed and first performed in London during the composer’s second triumphant residency. First performed in March 1914, Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony evokes the chimes of Westminster, a chilly November in Bloomsbury and the bright lights of the Strand in a city that would soon be scarred by war.