Sibelius’s Violin Concerto from the BBC Proms

Al Ryan celebrates summer music-making in the UK and beyond.

Throughout the season Classical Live features highlights from the BBC Proms, the world’s greatest classical music festival. Today we hear violinist Sueye Park as the soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, and from the same concert, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing Richard Strauss’s cosmic tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. We revisit the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg in Austria to hear Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi playing Liszt, and return one last time to the elegant rococo castle in Leitheim, Bavaria, for another of Mozart's String Quintets played by Quatuor Voce and violist Violaine Despeyroux.

From the BBC Proms 2026:
Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
Sueye Park (violin)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds (conductor)

From the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg 2026:
Franz Liszt
Years of Pilgrimage (1st Year, Switzerland – parts 7-10)
Francesco Piemontesi (piano)

From the Leitheim Castle Concerts 2026:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515
Quatuor Voce
Violaine Despeyroux (viola)

From the BBC Proms 2026:
Manuel da Falla (arr. Francisco Coll)
Fantasía Bética
Spanish National Orchestra
David Afkham (conductor)

From the Leipzig Bach Festival 2026:
Heinrich Scheidemann
Benedicam Dominum
Johannes Lang (organ of St Thomas Church, Leipzing)

From the BBC Proms 2026:
Richard Strauss
Also Sprach Zarathustra
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds (conductor)

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