Preview – BBC Proms 2026: First Night of the Proms

Programme

Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Gershwin An American in Paris
Ravel Piano Concerto in G major
Josephine Stephenson new work (BBC commission: world premiere)
Finzi For St Cecilia

Yunchan Lim (piano)
Thomas Atkins (tenor)
BBC Singers · BBC Symphony Chorus · BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Dalia Stasevska

Friday 17 July 2026 · 7pm–c9pm
Royal Albert Hall

Listen on BBC Radio 3 / BBC Sounds · Watch on BBC iPlayer (broadcast live)

Preview

Marking 250 years of American independence, the First Night programme makes a case for a generous, optimistic, breezy kind of America. Copland’s Fanfare, written in 1942 in response to Henry Wallace’s vision of a century belonging to ordinary people, sets the tone.

Gershwin’s An American in Paris follows: urbane, colourful, a European’s dream of American energy filtered through a Broadway sensibility. Then Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G — which sits midway between Debussy and Gershwin in feel, bluesy and iridescent — played by Yunchan Lim, the 2022 Van Cliburn competition winner.

Finzi’s For St Cecilia feels like the odd one out — serviceable, light, pleasant.

The Josephine Stephenson BBC commission will be pitched carefully for a First Night TV audience. Stephenson comes with credentials, but it is the style of the writing that will point to how Radio 3 is pitching contemporary classical music for its preferred target audience.

Review

This review will be published following the concert.

Gallery

Photography will be added once available.