To celebrate the year's two big Baroque anniversaries – and his own 65th birthday – the Michael Nyman Band makes its Proms debut with a new work echoing the Purcell and Handel pieces heard in Prom 53.



Best known for his soundtracks to such movies as The Piano, Gattaca and Wonderland, Michael Nyman started out as a musicologist, editing scores by Handel and Purcell; as a critic he coined the term 'Minimalism'; and, as a composer he first made his name by putting the music of classical masters through the Minimalist mill to generate raunchy, rhythmically propulsive, raucously energetic new works, such as his score for Peter Greenaway's 1982 film The Draughtsman’s Contract and the grief-frozen Memorial, (which featured in Greenaway's later The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) – both of which are Purcell-based.

The Draughtsman’s Contract – selection 23’
The Musicologist Scores c20’
BBC commission: world premiere
Six Celan Songs – Blume; Psalm 10’
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover – Memorial 12’

PROM 54: MICHAEL NYMAN
Tuesday 25 August 2009 - 10:15 PM
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore
London, SW7