First Night of the Proms review – 250th anniversary of US independence takes centre stage

From Copland to Gershwin and a new Emily Dickinson-based commission it was America’s evening – but with a surprise Mancunian encore

And we’re back. The “world’s greatest classical music festival” has flung wide the doors of the Royal Albert Hall for another eight-week season. Where the Last Night of the Proms is often strangely separate – a self-contained musical party for an entirely different audience – the First Night is the celebration for those here for the long haul, the scene-setter and season in microcosm. So what does this year’s have to say?

Whatever its current geopolitical strain, the “special relationship” is live and kicking in the concert hall. The 250th anniversary of American independence is front and centre this summer (because nationalism is always less embarrassing when it’s someone else’s), trumpeted from the off with – what else – Aaron Copland’s crowd-pleaser Fanfare for the Common Man.
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