BBC Proms: Edward Gardner conducts the LPO

The music

• Sibelius The Oceanides (11')
• Tippett The Rose Lake (29')
• Ravel Shéhérazade (17')
• Debussy La mer (23')

The performers

• Edward Gardner conductor
• Aigul Akhmetshina mezzo-soprano

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra return to the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms.

Waves play and waterfalls plunge, the still surface of a lake reflects the midday sun and an ocean duets with the wind in a concert with saltwater on its breath. Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of 20th-century orchestral sound-pictures. The mercurial moods of Debussy’s La mer and rolling waters of Sibelius’s The Oceanides find answer in the gentle rolling harbour of Ravel’s song-cycle Shéhérazade, performed – in a Proms debut – by mezzo- soprano Aigul Akhmetshina. Tippett’s last major work takes us inland to discover a glowing ‘lake full of song’.

General booking opens on Saturday 17 May.