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BBC Symphony Orchestra at Theatre Royal & Royal Concert HallDate: Fri 23rd Nov Time: 19:30 Martyn Brabbins conductor Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello Elizabeth Watts soprano Bliss Suite from Checkmate Elgar Cello Concerto Vaughan Williams A Pastoral Symphony (No. 3) Nottingham’s phenomenal young cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, provides the centrepiece to our centenary concert marking the end of World War One, performing Elgar’s elegiac concerto. Written in 1919 it distils the composer’s anguish at the devastation across Europe into the most moving concerto for the instrument. Vaughan Williams’ Pastoral Symphony ploughs similar emotional terrain, but the landscape evoked is of wartime France, where the composer had been an army ambulance driver. Impressionistic touches are felt throughout, whether in the echoes of a bugler’s last post, or the haunting, wordless soprano floating over hushed fields. The opener to this concert is Sir Arthur Bliss’s Checkmate, his superlative ballet score written in 1937 for a production that starred dance luminaries Robert Helpmann and Margot Fonteyn. The rituals of the chess game become a powerful allegorical tale about the rise of dark forces in Europe and the imminence of war, all thrillingly played out in Bliss’s incisive rhythms and vibrant colours. Free pre-concert talk, 6.30pm in the auditorium: Martyn Brabbins in conversation. Sheku’s debut album, Inspiration, is available now on Decca Classics. Theatre Royal & Royal Concert HallTheatre SquareNottingham Nottinghamshire NG1 5ND (more) Would you like to see more information about Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall? Let us know here and we'll do our best to get them listed and inform you when they are. BBC Symphony Orchestra(more) Would you like to see more information about BBC Symphony Orchestra? Let us know here and we'll do our best to get them listed and inform you when they are. |