BBC Proms 2016: Last Night of the Proms - Part 1

Tonight’s Prom marks the first instalment of all three of Stravinsky’s landmark ballets for the Ballet Russes company, all performed this weekend by Scottish orchestras. In the vivid folk tale of a puppet springing to life, Stravinsky had the starting point for his stylistic breakthrough, Petrushka, a ballet that would depict Russia with ‘quick tempos, smells of Russian food, sweat and glistening leather boots’. The first part of a new work from major talent Helen Grime (see also Prom 30) prefaces this concert’s arrival in Russia via all the despair, passion and determination of Tchaikovsky’s heart-rending Violin Concerto.