Walton Overture Scapino Bowen Viola Concerto Vaughan Williams Five Tudor Portraits
BBC Symphony Orchestra John Wilson conductor Lawrence Power viola Rosie Aldridge mezzo soprano Neal Davies baritone BBC Symphony Chorus
John Wilson returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra to conduct an all-British programme. Leading violist Lawrence Power has proved a persuasive champion of York Bowen’s gloriously Romantic concerto, written for Lionel Tertis in 1908, and this provides the emotional core for a concert lit with ribald humour. Walton’s ingenious ‘comedy overture’ Scapino, an exhilarating orchestral showpiece, finds a spirited echo in Vaughan Williams’s earthy Five Tudor Portraits. Setting texts by Henry VIII’s one-time tutor John Skelton, Vaughan Williams conjured up five vivid character sketches, from the drunken Elinor Rumming to the charming Pretty Bess, a scherzo for the tattered Jolly Rutterkin, and Jane Scroop’s heartfelt Requiem to her pet sparrow.
Running time TBC
BBC SO Plus Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm, Fountain Room An introduction to the music in tonight’s concert
info
info
info
book