The BBC Proms Guides provide all the background and information you need about some of the most popular works in the repertory. As one of the world's leading music festivals, the BBC Proms has over the years published unrivalled and highly-praised programme notes by some of today's leading writers on music. This volume covers a huge range of popular orchestral music in many forms - from Barber's famous 'Adagio' through to orchestral extracts from Wagner's operas - and some of the most often-programmed concert works including Debussy's 'La mer', Holst's 'The Planets', Ravel's 'Bolero', Strauss's 'Don Juan', and a wealth of tone poems, symphonic studies and essays, dances, variations and concertos for orchestra. If you want to know more about how these great works were written and what to listen out for as you encounter these remarkable pieces, this is the place to start.