Proms 2014 Prom 29: Chopin, Franck, Saint-Saëns & Casella by Casella, A., Chopin, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Alates (2014/2014), Dirigent Gianandrea Noseda, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

A concert of big melodies and even bigger sounds culminates in Saint-Saëns’s mighty ‘Organ’ Symphony. The French theme continues with Franck’s Symphonic Variations and, at just 22 years old, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor returns for his fourth Proms appearance, performing both in the Franck and in Chopin’s virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 1. The BBC Philharmonic and its Italian Conductor Laureate Gianandrea Noseda begin tonight's concert with Casella’s haunting ‘Heroic Elegy’, dedicated to the ‘unknown soldier’, continuing our series of works written in the shadow of the First World War. Former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Benjamin Grosvenor, still only 22, returns for his fourth Proms appearance in Chopin’s lyrical but virtuosic First Piano Concerto; he is also the soloist in Franck’s Symphonic Variations – once a Proms favourite (performed here on 60 occasions), though it has been largely absent since the 1960s.