Antics before an audience: conductors at the 2019 BBC Proms

What a difference a year makes. Live Proms will be back from Friday, but the very essence of the world's biggest music festival will be missing: the audience, and especially the Prommers whose rapt attention while standing has taken so many visiting orchestras by surprise.

No doubt the rapport between conductor and players will be electric at times, but the third point of what Britten called the "magic triangle" of composer, performers and audience will be notable by its absence.

Even so, the peerless Chris Christodoulou will be there to capture the essence of performance in action. Celebrating his 40th anniversary this year – he has promised us a personal selection – in 2019 he supplied theartsdesk with his usual collection of performers caught most flamboyantly in the act. We weren't able to run the gallery then, but now we can – and today's roster of conductors will be followed by unusual images of other star performers on Friday. Click on the images below for the full picture.

• Full list of livestreamed BBC Proms, starting on Friday 28 August
• Read classical music reviews on theartsdesk