Why doesn’t the BBC blaze the glories of its orchestras year round, not just at the Proms?

The BBC Symphony Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir perform Delius's A Mass for Life at the BBC Proms, August 2025. Photograph: Chris Christodoulou/BBC

This week, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 at the BBC Proms. It could well prove a season highlight. After nearly a decade under chief conductor Fabio Luisi, the orchestra has never sounded better.

The ensemble’s anglicised name conceals the fact that it’s operated and funded by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). Five years older than the BBC Symphony Orchestra, it celebrates its centenary this year – the second-oldest so-called “radio orchestra” in Europe.