Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra
2 Feb 2018, Barbican, London
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Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 2017-18 Season Sir Andrew Davis conducts Finzi & Shostakovich

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis conducts Finzi & Shostakovich
19:30 Fri 2 Feb 2018 Barbican, London
Two works full of hope from the 1950s: Finzi, writing under the shadow of death; and Shostakovich perhaps responding to the death of Stalin.
Two works full of hope from the 1950s: Finzi, writing under the shadow of death; and Shostakovich perhaps responding to the death of Stalin.

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Two very different works composed within two years of each other. Gerald Finzi’s glorious Cello Concerto, written in 1955 at the request of John Barbirolli, bursts with melody. It was premiered the night before Finzi’s death and was written with death a constant presence, yet it has a powerful sense of defiance about it. Paul Watkins is the soloist.

Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony (1953) is one of the composer’s best-loved works, powerful, dramatic and full of hints as to what it might portray (Stalin had died earlier that year). Its intensity never fails to make an impression.

Sir Andrew Davis, who headed the Â鶹ԼÅÄ SO from 1989 to 2000 makes a welcome return to the orchestra.