EVOLUTION! A Darwin-inspired extravaganza for kids
Barney Harwood presenter
Gemma Hunt presenter
with special guest Sir David Attenborough
BBC Concert Orchestra
London Philharmonic Choir
Charles Hazlewood conductor
There will be one interval.
CBBC presenters Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt unleash a natural selection of creatures in this child-friendly Prom inspired by the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Conductor Charles Hazlewood leads us from prehistoric Earth to outer space in John Williams’s soundtracks to Jurassic Park and Star Wars – and uncover the bird kingdom (with Delius’s On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring) and insect life (in Arvo Pärt’s If Bach had been a Beekeeper). Britten’s ‘Storm’ interlude from his opera Peter Grimes represents the primal elements before the arrival of animals, while Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man anticipates the collective human spirit.
Plus, there’s a new beginning, as DJ and drum-and-bass producer Goldie (runner-up of last year’s BBC Two Maestro competition) reveals a specially written, Darwin-inspired work – his first ever for a classical orchestra.