The BBC has unveiled the programme for its summer Proms festival, which runs from 16 July to 11 September. String interest is dominated by staples of the violin repertoire, including concertos by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bruch, Barber, Korngold, Shostakovich and Berg. Young women violinists are particularly  well represented, with Nicola Benedetti, Julia Fischer, Hilary Hahn, Lisa Batiashvili and Alina Ibragimova all performing.

Ibragimova gives one of several string world premieres - the Violin Concerto by British composer Huw Watkins. More new string music comes from Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen (his String Quartet no.6, performed by Meta4) and British composer David Matthews. His Dark Pastoral is based on the surviving fragment of the slow movement of Vaughan Williams's 1942 Cello Concerto, and will be performed by Steven Isserlis.

The handful of string performances not featuring a violin soloist include Berlioz's Harold in Italy with Ukrainian-born violist Maxim Rysanov and Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto performed by Alisa Weilerstein.

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