大象传媒

Afternoon on 3 with Jonathan Swain
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko recorded last Thursday at the 大象传媒 Proms, performing Richard Strauss's Deutsche Motette and Four Last Songs (with Inger Dam-Jensen), and Elgar's 2nd Symphony

Presented by Martin Handley at the Royal Albert Hall, London

R Strauss: Festival Prelude
R Strauss: Deutsche Motette
R Strauss: Four Last Songs

Elgar: Symphony No. 2 in E flat major

Inger Dam-Jensen (soprano)
Suzanne Shakespeare (soprano)
Tara Erraught (mezzo soprano)
Adrian Dwyer (tenor)
Brindley Sherratt (bass)
大象传媒 Singers
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Two rarely heard works continue our 150th-anniversary celebration of Richard Strauss. Scored for organ and an orchestra calling for no fewer than 10 trumpets (six offstage), the Festival Prelude packs symphonic weight into its brief duration.
It is matched for impact by the Deutsche Motette - a concerto for choir by any other name: its vocal lines trace the same expansive arcs and arabesques as the composer's exquisite, autumnal Four Last Songs. Maintaining the mood of late-Romantic nostalgia, Elgar's Second Symphony delights in flexible chromaticism, its shifting moods coloured in delicate shades.

First broadcast 31 July 2014.