Prom 42: Prokofiev, Neuwirth & Bartók by Prokofiev, Neuwirth, Bartók, -tól (2012/2012), Karmester Susanna Mälkki, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

About this event Susanna Mälkki returns to the Proms with two genre-defining 20th-century favourites. Revisiting the doomed love of Verona’s most romantic couple, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet effectively revivified the evening-length ballet, just as Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra cemented the potential of an apparently contradictory title. Between these classics, Lawrence Power joins the Philharmonia Orchestra to tackle the fiendishly difficult solo part in Olga Neuwirth’s recent work for viola and orchestra, comprising five breathtaking, seething, allusion-rich movements.