Classical for starters

Holst’s suite The Planets is one of classical music’s most extraordinary acts of imagination. Student musicians from Helsinki and London unite to perform the work alongside Sibelius’s The Wood Nymph and a new piece from Finnish-American composer Lara Poe.

Chineke! Orchestra returns to the Proms with Duke Ellington’s jazzed-up take on Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, Stewart Goodyear’s celebration of Caribbean music, Callaloo, and Tchaikovsky’s heartbreaking ‘Pathétique’ Symphony.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Kazuki Yamada present Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in an orchestration by Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood. Meanwhile Paul Lewis is the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27

Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony by bringing their unique Orchestral Theatre approach to the iconic work with the help of the BBC Singers and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain

Tianyi Lu conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Puccini’s lyrical Preludio sinfonico, Dukas’s retelling of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice tale and a new Cello Concerto by Francisco Coll. Rounding off the evening is Stravinsky’s iconic ballet The Firebird

In Holst’s 150th-anniversary year, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform his masterpiece The Cloud Messenger. We also hear Elgar’s ever-popular Cello Concerto, with Senja Rummukainen as soloist, and Jonathan Harvey’s Tranquil Abiding

Verdi’s Requiem was first performed 150 years ago and given its British premiere at the Royal Albert Hall the following year. Ryan Bancroft leads the BBC NOW and massed singers in a performance of this vivid choral masterpieces.