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BBC SO Total Immersion: Discovering George Walker

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Photo of George Walker looking at the camera

Alpesh Chauhan conducts four of George Walker’s most potent orchestral works: the climax of a day of Total Immersion in the imagination of this Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

'I try to write something I'm going to be able to live with, and hope that others will begin to find some of the things that I feel have given certain strength to the music' said George Walker. 'I don't really believe in creating something that doesn't have any strength'. The BBC Symphony Orchestra plays two of his late Sinfonias, as well as his single best-known work – the beautiful Lyric for Strings.

Walker didn’t go in for elaborate titles. 'Things that are overly embellished, or that are too rich, just don’t suit my temperament' he said. But make no mistake, his Movements (a cello concerto by any other name), his concise but deeply-felt Mass and his late masterpiece – the Sinfonia No 5 – are music that speaks directly to our times, impassioned, unsparing and unambiguously sincere. 

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Produced by the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Programme

George Walker Sinfonia No 2 (UK premiere)
Lyric for Strings
Movements for Cello and Orchestra (UK premiere)
Mass for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra (UK premiere)
Sinfonia No 5

Performers

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Alpesh Chauhan conductor
Laura van der Heijden cello
April Koyejo-Audiger soprano
Georgia Mae Bishop mezzo-soprano
Joshua Stewart tenor
Henry Waddington bass
Zoe Drummond soprano
Jessica Gillingwater mezzo-soprano
Florian Panzieri tenor
Frazer Scott bass
BBC Symphony Chorus

Digital programme

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