'This is the best of me.' So wrote Elgar at the end of his score and, despite a disastrous first performance in 1900, his setting of Newman's poem is now regarded as one of the composer's finest works. In the interval, James Hamilton Paterson, author of the novel Gerontius talks about his fascination with this enigmatic composer. Tonight's concert from the Royal Albert Hall, London, launching the 97th season of Promenade Concerts, is given in the presence of HRH the Prince of Wales.

Great British Music

Sheherazade. For 200 years, the classic series of tales from the Middle East, The 1001 Nights, has inspired artists, musicians and dancers. In tonight's highlights from the 1991 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, Alexander Lazarev conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the most famous and popular of these musical inspirations: Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. To set the scene for tonight's Prom, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie talks to Yasin Safadi , an expert on story-telling in Persia and India.

Russian Yuri Bashmet is the soloist in Walton's Viola

In a few short months, Mark Wigglesworth has come to the fore as one of Britain's most dynamic young conductors. Winner of the 1989 Kondrashin Competition and recently appointed as Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the age of 26, he now makes his Proms debut with a performance of Bartok's Music for Percussion, Strings and Celesta. Robert Ziegler, tonight's presenter and himself a conductor, also meets the venerable Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski, who conducts his new work, a song-cycle called Chantefleurs et Chantefables.

All-Night Vigil by Rachmaninov. Cuban conductor Odaline de la

The King's Consort. In 1749, the first public rehearsal for Handel's Musick for the Royal Fireworks caused a three-hour traffic jam. Keen to recapture the original fun and excitement - without the chaos - Robert King assembles a huge baroque orchestra in London's Royal Albert Hall , including 20 oboes and 12 bassoons. Also in the programme is the Water Music - written by Telemann. Presented by Nicholas Kenyon.

Pictures at an Exhibition by Musorgsky began its life as a cycle of piano pieces, but has been orchestrated and arranged by more composers than any other musical work. At the last count there were more than 24 versions.

The 97th season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts comes to a close, live from the Royal Albert Hall , London. The concert opens with Cockaigne (Elgar), Towards the Unknown Region (Vaughan Williams) and The Walk to the Paradise Garden (Delius). The first half ends on an operatic note with soprano Gwyneth Jones as Briinnhilde in the immolation scene from

The biggest musical party of the year reaches its festive climax as the audience in the packed Royal Albert Hall in London celebrates the second-half of the Last Night of the Proms. Conductor Andrew