Claudio Abbado conducts tonight's Prom featuring the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, which draws its players from all over the world and whichà Abbado helped to create. The concert begins with the dramatic Songs and Dances of Death by Musorgsky, featuring the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky who won the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1989. He says: "I am very excited to be making my Proms debut and to be working with one of the world's greatest maestros, Abbado, for the first time and with such an exciting youth orchestra with players from many Eastern European countries. And I'm proud to be singing one of the strongest song-cycles in the Russian repertoire." Part 2 is Anton Bruckner's monumental Fifth Symphony. During the interval, there is a look behind the scenes with the orchestra on its summer course in Bolzano, northern Italy, as Abbado prepares the young players for the Prom. Introduced by Michael Berkeley.
