Prom 73: BBC Symphony Orchestra September 10, 2008

One of the greatest - and most popular - of all British orchestral works ends tonight's programme. Martyn Brabbins conducts Holst's astrological suite, The Planets, with the Holst Singers ushering us into nothingness in the closing 'Neptune'.

Iannis Xenakis's Pleiades, too, looks to the skies. Scored for a sextet of exotic percussion, Pleiades portrays, in the composer's words, 'clouds, nebulas and galaxies of the fragmented dust of beats organised by rhythm'. It's a work of great drama, at times quite brutal, and drawing on Xenakis's experiences in the Second World War during which he lost the sight in one eye.

Vaughan Williams's chilly evocation of the vast, uninhabited wastes of the South Pole opens the evening, with Elizabeth Watts (see PCM 8) returning for the wordless soprano part.

* Vaughan Williams Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No.7) (42 mins)
* Interval
* Xenakis Pleiades (44 mins)
* Interval
BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme
* Holst The Planets (52 mins)

Elizabeth Watts soprano
4-Mality
O Duo
Holst Singers (women's voices)

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins conductor

Elizabeth Watts is a member of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme.

Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/whatson/1009.shtml#prom73