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Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore
Kensington
London
SW7 2AP
England
Programme
Peter Maxwell Davies – Caroline Mathilde
Izaak Walton – Violin Concerto
~ Interval ~
Jean Sibelius – The Swan of Tuonela, Op.22 no.2
Jean Sibelius – Symphony no.5 in E flat major, Op.82
Performers
Mary Bevan – soprano
Kitty Whately – mezzo-soprano
James Ehnes – violin
Thomas Søndergård – Conductor
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Other concerts in this Series
Programme Note
Commissioned by Jascha Heifetz, Walton’s concerto extended the possibilities of what could be achieved on the violin, while at the same time maintaining a striking intimacy and emotional directness.
Søndergård and the BBC NOW open with a suite from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s ballet Caroline Mathilde, in which the English princess is sent to an unhappy marriage in Denmark, and continue with two great orchestral works by Sibelius. A painting of a flight of swans hung on the wall of the composer’s study, and these birds inspired both the majestic ‘swan theme’ apotheosis of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony and the more serene and mystical tone-poem The Swan of Tuonela.