BBC Proms 2026: Rachmaninov, Bartók and Varèse

On 8 September, BBC Proms 2026 presents a programme marking the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 90th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. The concert traces a pivotal musical year, 1936, through three striking works. Varèse’s Density 21.5 pushes the limits of sound in a solo flute work of radical focus. Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta creates a tense, architectural sound world driven by rhythm and symmetry. The evening closes with Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 3, a deeply emotional late-Romantic work shaped by nostalgia, memory and elegiac intensity. For more information and tickets click on ‘buy ticket’.