After last year's parade of young violinists, the BBC Proms this year turns to some long-established string stars for its 117th season (15 July–10 September), details of which were unveiled yesterday.

Yo-Yo Ma and Nigel Kennedy are among the headline names, the former performing the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's Cello Concerto and the latter playing solo Bach. Among other over-40s soloists featured, Gil Shaham plays Bruch's First Violin Concerto, Anne-Sophie Mutter plays Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit and Christian Tetzlaff performs the Brahms Violin Concerto and gives the UK premiere of Birtwistle's Violin Concerto. Leonidas Kavakos and Lynn Harrell both feature in Dutilleux performances, the violinist with L'arbre des songes and the cellist with 'Tout un monde lointain ...'.

More string world premieres come in the shape of Sally Beamish's String Quartet no.3, played by the Elias Quartet, and Thomas Larcher's Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, featuring Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley. Elsewhere in the festival Lisa Batiashvili plays Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, Tasmin Little performs the Elgar Violin Concerto and the Capuçon brothers Renaud and Gautier play the Brahms 'Double' Concerto.