大象传媒

French Baroque giant Les Arts Florissants launches this season鈥檚 Proms Chamber Music concerts at Cadogan Hall with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau, who died 250 years ago. His Pi猫ces de clavecin en concerts sees the composer at his most dramatically vivid and virtuosic, showcasing this ensemble in the first of its two concerts this season.

One of choral music鈥檚 greatest works, Jan谩膷ek鈥檚 Glagolitic Mass is a passionate, secular oratorio celebrating nationhood and peace. By contrast, conflict is to the fore in Brahms鈥檚 Piano Concerto No. 1, a work that distils the drama of the composer鈥檚 relationship with Schumann and his wife Clara. Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Barry Douglas.

Turbulent mythical love meets poised Classical elegance in a concert from the 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra that sets Mozart鈥檚 Piano Concerto No. 23 alongside Ravel鈥檚 sensuous ballet score Daphnis and Chloe. Launching us far beyond either Mozart鈥檚 Vienna or Ravel鈥檚 Paris, Jonathan Dove鈥檚 new orchestral work Gaia Theory explores the idea of life on our planet evolving alongside the environment.

Mahler鈥檚 Symphony No. 5 鈥� an orchestral showpiece of shifting moods and intense emotions 鈥� is the culmination to this concert by the 大象传媒 Philharmonic. The orchestra is joined by Pianist Alexandre Tharaud for Ravel鈥檚 virtuosic Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and the programme opens with Sir Harrison Birtwistle鈥檚 atmospheric Night鈥檚 Black Bird.

Before her solo appearance at the Last Night of the Proms, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen joins with pianist Itamar Golan and with conductor Sakari Oramo (making his Proms debut as a violinist). Two lyrical works by Prokofiev are paired with Schubert鈥檚 sublime Fantasie from almost a century earlier.

In the first of two concerts with the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales, Principal Conductor Thomas S酶nderg氓rd directs the first of two great Scandinavian symphonies. Nielsen鈥檚 Fifth Symphony explores a bleakness that is also at the core of Strauss鈥檚 great tone-poem Tod und Verkl盲rung. The 鈥榗omplicated nonsense鈥� of Strauss鈥檚 youthful Burleske and Mozart鈥檚 sunny Rondo in A major complete the concert, both featuring pianist Franceso Piemontesi.

Rameau鈥檚 opera Les Indes galantes and Strauss鈥檚 tone-poem Ein Heldenleben were notorious flops at their premieres, yet both are now recognised as peaks of their genre. The 大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra take us from 18th-century France to fin-de-si猫cle Germany (with a quick stop-off in Chelsea, where the 8-year-old Mozart composed his First Symphony) in a concert that also includes the UK premiere of Bernard Rands鈥檚 Piano Concerto.

Pianist Louis Schwizgebel and the dynamic Royal String Quartet are the key players in a concert that culminates in Richard Strauss's richly nostalgic Metamorphosen, heard in an intimate arrangement for string septet. Alongside it are Mahler's contemplative Piano Quartet movement and Mozart's elegantly poised Piano Sonata in D major, K311.

The young British pianist performs a programme with a dance theme pulsing through it. Chopin鈥檚 stately Ballade No. 1 gives way to the dizzying virtuosity of Ravel鈥檚 Valses nobles et sentimentales, before the waltz returns, transfigured, in Liszt鈥檚 Waltz from 鈥楩aust鈥�. Mompou鈥檚 Paisajes transports us to Barcelona, and Grosvenor also premieres a new work by Judith Weir.

The centrepiece of this Prom by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and Han-Na Chang is Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Symphony No. 5. Vivid with textural contrasts and sudden surging climaxes, it is matched for drama by Rachmaninov鈥檚 Second Piano Concerto 鈥� a Proms favourite, with a slow movement that burns with restrained passion.