Antics before an audience: conductors at the 2019 BBC Proms

Chris Christodoulou's gallery capturing the heat of the moment last year

by TheartsdeskWednesday, 26 August 2020

Dalia Stasevska, this year's Last Night conductor, making her Proms debut in 2019All images by Chris Christodoulou

What a difference a year makes. Live Proms will be back from Friday, but the very essence of the world's biggest music festival will be missing: the audience, and especially the Prommers whose rapt attention while standing has taken so many visiting orchestras by surprise.

No doubt the rapport between conductor and players will be electric at times, but the third point of what Britten called the "magic triangle" of composer, performers and audience will be notable by its absence.

Even so, the peerless Chris Christodoulou will be there to capture the essence of performance in action. Celebrating his 40th anniversary this year – he has promised us a personal selection – in 2019 he supplied theartsdesk with his usual collection of performers caught most flamboyantly in the act. We weren't able to run the gallery then, but now we can – and today's roster of conductors will be followed by unusual images of other star performers on Friday. Click on the images below for the full picture.

Karina Kanellakis (Prom 1)

Jakub Hrůša (Prom 2)

Kirill Karabits (Prom 4)

Edward Gardner (Prom 6)

Omer Meir Wellber (Prom 7)

Stephen Bell (Prom 11)

Mark Wigglesworth (Prom 12)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Prom 15)

Thomas Dausgaard (Prom 19)

Dalia Stasevska (Prom 25)

Nathalie Stutzmann (Prom 26)

John Wilson (Prom 30)

Antonio Pappano (Prom 32)

Maxime Pascal (Prom 37)

Elim Chan (Prom 39)

Iván Fischer (Prom 40)

Rafael Payare (Prom 42)

Simon Rattle (Prom 44)

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Prom 46)

Andris Nelsons (Prom 47)

Richard Egarr (Prom 55)

Andrés Orozco-Estrada (Prom 61)

Myung-Whun Chung (Prom 63)

Andrew Manze (Prom 74)

Sakari Oramo (Last Night of the Proms)

Bernard Haitink leaves the stage after his final London concert

Chris Christodoulou supplied us with his usual collection of performers caught most flamboyantly in the act

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