Elim Chan conducted her first Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, where Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor joined an orchestral “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Elim Chan conducted her first Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington on Saturday 13 September 2025. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Singers performed.
The Last Night falls on the second Saturday in September and closes the BBC Proms season. Its second half traditionally runs through Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs and “Rule, Britannia!” to Parry’s “Jerusalem”. The evening ends with “Auld Lang Syne”.
The first half was more sober. Trumpeter Alison Balsom played Hummel’s concerto in her last performance as a trumpet soloist. Louise Alder became the first British soprano to sing at a Last Night in more than a decade.
The BBC commissioned two world premieres: Camille Pépin’s Fireworks and Rachel Portman’s The Gathering Tree.
After the interval Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor joined a new orchestral arrangement of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for its 50th anniversary. Bill Bailey made his Proms debut at the keys of Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter, and Alder sang “Rule, Britannia!” in a Union Jack gown.
BBC Radio 3 broadcast the concert live, with BBC Two carrying the first half and BBC One the finale.