BBC Radio 3 increases HD Proms coverage

The BBC is promising to broadcast more Proms this year, with Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, 4 Extra, 6 Music and Asian Network all featuring events.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast each Prom live from the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall in HD and will make the audio available to listen to online for seven days after broadcast and each week there will be a chance to hear six concerts during Afternoon on 3 and Sunday Concert.

Now in its fourth year, BBC Radio 3’s World Routes Academy returns for its own Prom, this time the focus is music of Azerbaijan.

BBC Radio 2 will simulcast with BBC Radio 3 The BBC Concert Orchestra’s all English programme of Bantock, Coates and Elgar, among others on the 31st July. Nigel Kennedy and Joseph Calleja, both of whom will have featured earlier in the festival, will perform at Proms in the Park, Hyde Park – 7th September alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, with Kennedy also appearing at the Royal Albert Hall that same evening. The Hyde Park event is broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 as well as reflected on BBC One and BBC Radio 3.

BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Radio 3’s Tom Service will join forces to present an eclectic Late Night Prom led by singers Cerys Matthews and Laura Marling and punk rockers The Stranglers alongside the London Sinfonietta, which will be broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music.

In a first for 2013, BBC Radio 4 Extra will broadcast a new initiative Proms Plus Storytime aimed at families with children aged 3 to 7. Presenter Hannah Conway, accompanied by a chamber orchestra, will interact with the audience in musical retellings of two books. Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers on the 13th July with City of London Sinfonia, and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen on the 4th August, Britten Sinfonia. Both events will be recorded for broadcast on Radio 4 Extra.

BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio 3 will come together to simulcast the world premiere of Nishat Khan’s BBC commission The Gate of the Moon (Sitar Concerto No. 1), performed by the composer himself, and Holst’s Indra, a musical portrayal of the Hindu god of rain and storm.

BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 1 and 1 Extra will broadcast the first ever Urban Classic Prom with artists including Fazer, Laura Mvula and Maverick Sabre joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This will also air on BBC Three.

Also on TV, highlights of Proms coverage includes the return of the Dr Who Prom for the 50th anniversary of the television series on BBC 1.

In addition to all broadcast activity, the BBC Proms website offers event information and opportunities for audiences members and listeners to share their experiences of the season.