# Anna Clyne: Masquerade _Masquerade_ was composed for the Last Night of the BBC Proms and received its world premiere on 7 September 2013 at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop. The work is dedicated to the "Prommers" and conceived as a festive curtain-raiser for one of classical music's most public and celebratory occasions. Clyne draws inspiration from the Proms' historical roots: 18th-century London pleasure gardens where promenade concerts mingled music with entertainment. Costume and masks allowed socially mixed crowds to temporarily blur the lines of rank and class. Clyne evokes these entertainments in miniature scenes, as if acrobats, dancers, fireworks, clowns, and street performers are competing for our attention as we stroll through a hurly-burly atmosphere.