Prom 65 – Stravinsky, Ravel & Berio

Part of the BBC Proms.

Three 20th-century classics explore the fantastical beginnings of modern music. Semyon Bychkov leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a journey that contrasts the pre-war, avant-garde provocations of Stravinsky’s infamous ballet The Rite of Spring with the darker post-war reflections of Ravel’s La valse, also commissioned by Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. At the centre of the programme is Berio’s extraordinary Sinfonia. Dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, it is a technical tour de force for orchestra and eight solo voices that gathers together familiar fragments of classical music (including nods to both the Ravel and Stravinsky works) to create something bewilderingly brilliant and utterly, joyously original.