´óÏó´«Ã½

Purcell Chacony (arr. Britten) (7 mins)

Lutosławski Paroles tissées (15 mins)

L. Berkeley, Britten, Oldham, Searle, Tippett, Walton Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (Sellinger’s Round) (c24 mins)
with new variations by Tansy Davies
and John Woolrich
´óÏó´«Ã½ commission: world premiere

Britten Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (25 mins)

Ben Johnson tenor, New Generation Artist
Richard Watkins horn
English Chamber Orchestra
Paul Watkins conductor

To mark the coronation in 1953, Lennox Berkeley, Britten, Arthur Oldham, Humphrey Searle, Tippett and Walton composed a series of variations on ‘Sellinger’s Round’, a melody harmonised four centuries earlier by William Byrd and orchestrated in 1953 by Imogen Holst. Today the English Chamber Orchestra adds two new variations to the set, by John Woolrich and Tansy Davies, in a matinee that also features two vivid works written for tenor Peter Pears: Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Lutosławski’s Paroles tissées.

There will be no interval

Watch and listen to more music by Britten at the Proms.

Watch and listen to more Polish music at the Proms.