From reformation to revolution, oratorios to orientalism and the electrifying and the epic, here’s the concerts not to miss in this year’s BBC Proms season, which begins on 14 July
I probably should choose something “boundary-breaking” (as the Proms programme describes Bang on a Can’s late-night prom on 17 August), but I can never resist Elgar’s Symphony No 1. I was slower to appreciate his second – I suffered some early dawdling disappointments – but that, too, now speaks to me as few other works do. On disc, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin have shown themselves to be sympathetic interpreters of these inexhaustible symphonies, and their pair of concerts on the opening weekend are unmissable. The couplings are enticing too: Lisa Batiashvili performing the Sibelius violin concerto on Saturday, and on Sunday the UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Deep Time, dedicated to the memory of Peter Maxwell Davies. Stephen Moss