BBC Proms: First Night Of The Proms

BBC2, 8pm & BBC4, 9.05pm Katie Derham (right) once again presents the glorious six-week festival of music, which has been an annual fixture since 1895 and gets under way with this opening concert from London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Acclaimed Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra present an uplifting programme, including the complex Serenade To Music by Vaughan Williams, written for no fewer than 16 soloists, and Poulenc’s powerful Organ Concerto.

Coverage continues on BBC4 with Sibelius’s Second Symphony – which revealed his maturing genius to the world – and the world premiere of When Soft Voices Die, a response by the Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan to the pandemic and the return from lockdown, featuring soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and tenor Allan Clayton. ★★★★★