He famously reduced the conductor Josef Krips to tears during rehearsals with the LSO

A concert curated and conducted by Oliver Knussen has as much interest as a new piece by this most reclusive and original of British composers. And Prom 26 – whose works he seems to have chosen because they reflect a fastidious control of detail equal to his own – allowed things which are not normally juxtaposed to shed fresh light on each other.

There can’t be many winners of the Mercury Music Prize who could play London’s Royal Opera House and finish the show with the entire audience on their feet shouting “Bravo!” as if the curtains had just come down on La Bohème. But this was hardly your average gig. Besides, the Opera House’s grandness certainly provides the perfect backdrop for Hegarty’s otherworldly tales of sorrow.

The Royal Albert Hall is seeking a long-term solution to address the sweltering heat in the auditorium during the summer months, which has left Proms audiences “dripping with sweat” and creates significant challenges for the musicians.

The Proms may never be the same again after the extraordinary heights achieved by the concert performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle on almost consecutive nights last week as the composer intended.

The curtain came down on the 2012 Games with Usain Bolt crossing the line out in front for his third gold. It was only right athletics' ultimate showman had the final say inside the same venue as he anchored a Jamaican quartet to victory in the 4x100m relay.

The small size, thin sound and restricted harmonic adaptability of 18th-century harps explains the paucity of serious repertoire for the instrument. Virtually the only work of note Mozart wrote for the harp is the Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra in C major, commissioned by an amateur father/daughter duo, here given a subtle but rousing interpretation by de Maistre, his harp trailing delicate tendrils around Magali Mosnier's lead flute line. Elsewhere, de Maistre has capitalised on advances in harp design to perform re-arranged versions of the popular Sonata Facile and the Concerto for Keyboard and Orchestra No 19 in F major.

'Barbra Streisand is always a joy to watch'

The audiences for this immense work ought to be disappearing. In fact, they're growing

For a Proms audience chock-a-block with enthusiasts determined not to be distracted by Royal baby news or excessive heat, Daniel Barenboim took the Proms podium to open Das Rheingold – the first opera in the Proms’ hungrily-anticipated, first-ever Ring cycle. Moments later, that spacious E flat build-up was immersing us in some seriously luxurious Wagnerian waters.

Prom 10 – Lisiecki, Santa Cecilia, Pappano (****)

Prom 11 – Ex Cathedra, Skidmore (*****)

Love lessons in a strictly minor key

There is no entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for William Webster the younger, founder of the Blackheath Halls, Blackheath Conservatoire and now defunct Blackheath College of Art.

Production chronicles the story of a divisive new toll road scheduled to slice through a village