The 2023 BBC Proms festival has just been announced and the line-up of star soloists is predictably impressive. This year's festival runs from July 14 to September 9, and for those of you who are already planning which concerts you would like to either attend or watch/listen to live, here is an exploration of the work of just a few of the leading performers this year, complete with links to the original album reviews in Gramophone's Reviews Database and opportunities to listen via Apple Music. Roll on the summer!

Benjamin Grosvenor (July 16 & August 6)

This year the Proms mark 150 years since Sergey Rachmaninovʼs birth. Over the course of the festival, 11 of Rachmaninovʼs works will be performed, including – on August 6 – the Second Piano Concerto with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, who will be joined by the Sinfonia of London and John Wilson. Grosvenor will also be performing a solo recital on July 16, comprised of Debussy's Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (arr Borwick), Liszt's Réminiscences de Norma and Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin and La valse.

Grosvenor won Gramophone's Concerto Award in 2020 for his recordings of the Chopin piano concertos alongside the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Elim Chan. Our reviewer Harriet Smith remarked: 'When Benjamin Grosvenor finally makes his first entrance, it proves well worth the wait, and his playing beguiles from the off; as the dynamics sink, his lines are full of poetry but they unfold with utter naturalness. Chan follows his every gesture unerringly – there's no doubting the musical chemistry at play here.' Read the Gramophone review

Sir Stephen Hough (July 18)

Stephen Hough will be continuing the Rachmaninov celebrations with a performance of the First Piano Concerto alongside the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Mark Wigglesworth, who will also be performing Mahler's First Symphony that evening. 

Hough made an outstanding recording of Rachmaninov's four piano concertos with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Litton for Hyperion nearly 20 years ago and the account of the First Concerto was singled out for particular praise: 'Hough imparts the right sense of heroic struggle; not even Rachmaninov caresses the second subject of the First Concerto’s finale so beguilingly', wrote Bryce Morrison in his review.

Anna Lapwood (July 25)

This special late-night concert puts the glorious Royal Albert Hall organ centre stage as Anna Lapwood performs works by Debussy, Hans Zimmer, Philip Glass, Kristina Arakelyan, Ghislaine Reece-Trapp and Olivia Belli. Lapwood is an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall and has a deep knowledge of the capabilities of the hall's famous organ, often playing the instrument late into the night. 

Lapwood's album 'Midnight Sessions at the Royal Albert Hall' (released April 21) would make the perfect introduction for those wishing to explore this Prom.

Daniil Trifonov (July 30)

Daniil Trifonov will be the soloist for one of the most keenly-anticipated UK premieres at this year's festival: Mason Bates's Piano Concerto. Trifonov will be joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno, who will also perform Prokofiev's Symphony No 3 and the Suite from Herrmann's score for the film Vertigo.

For a vision of Trifonov at his most technically astounding, look no further than his album 'Transcendental', which was released by DG in 2016. It was our Recording of the Month in that same month and was subsequently shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. Jeremy Nicholas wrote: 'Trifonov’s is the best kind of virtuoso playing, where one is hardly aware of the notes being played, allowing one to simply bask in the genius of Liszt’s musical narrative and the transcendant execution of an awesomely gifted pianist.' Read the Gramophone review

Isata Kanneh-Mason (August 1)

This year, Isata Kanneh-Mason makes her solo debut at the Proms with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3, joined by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Ryan Bancroft. The concerto will be followed, without an interval, by Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5.

Kanneh-Mason co-hosted the Gramophone Awards ceremony alongside Editor-in-Chief James Jolly in 2021 and her albums of music by Clara Schumann, 'Summertime' and (alongside her brother, Sheku – see below) 'Muse', have all been named as Editor's Choices in Gramophone.

Yuja Wang (August 4)

This concert really is all-star programming and it will therefore come as no surprise that it will be broadcast on BBC TV. Yuja Wang will play Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Klaus Mäkelä. In the second half of this concert, Thomas Hampson and the BBC Symphony Chorus will join the forces on stage for Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast.

Yuja Wang made a sensational recording of the Paganini Variations back in 2011 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Claudio Abbado, an album that was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. Jeremy Nicholas noted of the then 22-year-old Wang: 'She is also an artist with that unteachable ability to tug at the emotions without recourse to sentimentality, as her playing of the famous Variation 23 beautifully illustrates.' Read the Gramophone review

Dame Sarah Connolly (August 9)

Sarah Connolly will be performing songs by Alma Mahler-Werfel and Croatia’s Dora Pejačević with John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic in this Prom, which opens with Weber's Oberon overture and closes with Rachmaninov's Symphony No 1.

To hear Connolly in repertoire closely related to the songs of Alma Mahler-Werfel, try the recording of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a Gramophone Award-shortlisted album made alongside tenor Robert Dean Smith and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski. Our reviewer Edward Seckerson wrote: 'This is a performance of such distinction that regardless of one’s personal view of the piece – that is, exactly how objective or subjective you want or need your Mahler to be, and whether you favour an alto or baritone voice – it must be considered a prime contender for anyone’s library.' Which is a pretty unequivocal recommendation! Read the Gramophone review

Sir András Schiff (August 12 & 13)

András Schiff will be performing two contrasting concertos on successive evenings at this year's Proms. On August 12 he will play Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer, and on the following evening will play Bartók's Piano Concerto No 3.

Schiff recorded the Schumann concerto back in 1983 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Antal Dorati, and has recorded all of Bartók's concertos with this year's collaborators, the BFO and Fischer. 

Alice Coote and Michael Spyres (September 3)

If any of this year's Proms concerts can justly be described as 'epic', then it is this one. Berlioz's The Trojans with a cast led by Alice Coote as Cassandra and Michael Spyres as Aeneas with the Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. 

Alice Coote has made several recordings that have either won or been shortlisted for Gramophone Awards, but perhaps to get the best sense of what she might bring to the role of Cassandra, try her album 'L'heure exquise: A French Songbook' made with pianist Graham Johnson for Hyperion. A recording which, wrote Geoffrey Norris, is 'distinguished by Coote’s thorough absorption in the stylistic character of each song, conveying their individual sentiments and sensitivities with her rich, liquid mezzo and relishing the colouristic potential of the poetic texts.' Read the Gramophone review

Michael Spyres was on the cover of Gramophone's March issue and is one of the most in-demand singers around at the moment. He won a Gramophone Award last year for his album 'BariTenor'.

Lise Davidsen and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (September 9)

The Last Night of the Proms will feature Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing Bruch's Kol Nidrei and Lise Davidsen singing Verdi and Wagner, as well as participating in the traditional Last Night music. Marin Alsop will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the BBC Singers, who were saved from closure by a public outcry over plans to abolish the group earlier this year. 

Lise Davidsen was Gramophone's Young Artist of the Year in 2018, and as James Jolly wrote at the time of the Award: 'Hers is a name to remember, and a voice – once heard – you won’t forget.' She has already made several outstanding recordings, but her album of works by Beethoven, Verdi and Wagner with the LPO and Sir Mark Elder will probably give the clearest idea of what to expect from 'one of the greatest voices to be heard today' (as Hugo Shirley wrote in his review) at the Last Night of the Proms. 

To explore the the 2023 BBC Proms in full, visit: royalalberthall.com