Proms 2026 Elgar’s First

‘Human life … and a massive hope in the future’: this – no less – is Elgar’s sweeping subject for his First Symphony – a work once nicknamed ‘Brahms’s Fifth’ for its close relationship with the German tradition. Exuberant and filled with orchestral colour, an ‘immediate and phenomenal success’ at its premiere, it’s the work of a composer steeped in musical history but looking to the future. Two contemporary works open this concert by Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: the world premiere of The World’s Wife by Brett Dean – setting words by Carol Ann Duffy – and Judith Weir’s Moon and Star – capturing the vastness and strangeness of space through the eyes of New England poet Emily Dickinson.

Recorded for broadcast on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer

Claire Booth © Sven Arnstein