大象传媒

Jonathan Swain begins a week of concerts featuring the 大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with music by four English composers: Edward Elgar, William Walton, Dorothy Howell and Richard Rodney Bennett. Also on the programme: a recording of Beethoven's breakthrough Eroica Symphony.

2pm
Elgar: Cockaigne (In London Town) - overture, Op 40
Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85
Walton: Symphony No 1 in B flat minor
Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)
大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

3.20pm
Dorothy Howell: Piano Concerto in D minor
Danny Driver (piano)
大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Rebecca Miller (conductor)

3.45pm
Beethoven: Symphony No 3 in E flat major, Op 55 (Eroica)
大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov (conductor)

4.30pm
Richard Rodney Bennett: Summer Music; Sinfonietta
大象传媒 Scottish Symphony Orchestra
John Wilson (conductor)

English music features largely in today's Afternoon Concert. To begin, there's the two sides of Edward Elgar: on the one hand his playful overture Cockaigne; on the other his powerful Cello Concerto, a rite-of-passage for many a cellist, today in the capable hands of Leonard Elschenbroich. William Walton's First Symphony caused the composer plenty of problems before he finally arrived at a version with which he was satisfied. Indeed, the first public performance had to be given without the finale. That finale is intact in this afternoon's recording.

Elsewhere, John Wilson conducts music by the versatile Sir Richard Rodney Bennett; there's a rarely heard piano concerto from Dorothy Howell, and a performance given last November in Leeds of Beethoven's Third Symphony, the 'Eroica'.