Prom 9: War & Peace by Various, Ó (2018/2018), Seoltóir Simon Halsey, Donald Runnicles

In the centenary year of the end of the First World War, the World Orchestra for Peace – founded by Georg Solti as an expression of international musical harmony – returns to the Proms with one of classical music’s most potent statements of brotherhood and fellowship, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Composed in the shadow of the Second World War, Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem adds its own emotive warning against war. The concert opens with a new, First World War-themed work by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, commissioned for the talented young singers of the BBC Proms Youth Choir.