Proms 2023 Prom 8: Impressions of Spain

Josep Pons and the BBC Symphony Orchestra present a Spanish-themed Prom with a French accent. Debussy and Ravel paint Spain in their own distinctive colours: Ravel with the raw heat and insistent thrum of his Boléro and Debussy in the vivid musical vignettes of Ibéria. Meanwhile Spanish violinist María Dueñas – a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and winner of the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition – is the soloist in Édouard Lalo’s most famous work, the Symphonie espagnole, which marks the French Romantic composer’s 200th anniversary. The concert opens in Andalusia, with music from Falla’s tragic opera La vida breve, set in sun-soaked Granada.

Image: María Dueñas © Tam Lan Truong