This is the tenth consecutive Proms season in which the pioneering Aurora Orchestra has performed a work from memory. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913) is a piece that was once considered unplayable and unintelligible, and famously led to a riot at the premiere. Today, despite infamous difficulties, it’s a standard of any orchestra’s repertoire. As Aurora Orchestra’s creative director and principal flautist Jane Mitchell writes, “Dare I say it thrills us to recapture some of the fear and risk felt by those players and dancers back in 1913?” Throughout August 2023, the Aurora Orchestra have been touring the work across Europe and the UK. Now at the BBC Proms, they have two consecutive packed-house Proms all to themselves (train strikes be damned).

Unsurprisingly, it’s an electric sound, and an electric atmosphere. Perhaps more surprisingly, it’s also completely flawless: they really have memorised the entire thirty-five minutes. Aurora Orchestra founder Nicholas Collon has also memorised the entire score, and conducts from memory: he’s cool-headed and methodical. The orchestra, though, are not: they’re all standing upright (apart from the cellos), and take on immense physicality, swinging and diving as they thrust through Stravinsky’s wild rhythms.

In the first half, it’s a sort of “music in education” piece, narrated by conductor Nicholas Collon himself, a bit like Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945). This is Aurora Orchestra’s broader commitment to “Orchestral Theatre”: innovative productions that rethink the concert format. Written and directed by Jane Mitchell and James Bonas, actors Karl Queensborough and Charlotte Ritchie multi-role the original creative team of Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Diaghilev and Rambert, as well as reporters and audience members from that fateful premiere. Members of the orchestra are highlighted through lighting and projections (David Bishop, Anouar Brissel), allowing us to isolate and zone in on certain sections. And, with some audience participation, to have a go at actually clapping along.

For an encore, the orchestra come out into the arena and the aisles of the stalls, all jumbled up, and play some more. It’s a thrilling, immersive experience.

Tickets for all 71 Proms are available from just £8 on the BBC Proms 2023 website.