大象传媒

Recorded at St George's Bristol in March this year with the young British conductor Jonathan Bloxham, a concert of music by Beethoven and Strauss. Welsh soprano Rhian Lois brings great characterisation to Beethoven's concert aria Ah! Perfido (Ah! Deceiver), written in part to a text by that doyen of librettists, Pietro di Metastasio. Faced with the ruins of WWII, Strauss memorialised his country's past by quoting Beethoven鈥檚 groundbreaking 鈥楨roica鈥� symphony in his elegy for 23 string soloists, Metamorphosen, and the concert ends with that very symphony. When the orchestra recorded this concert they knew they wouldn't be performing together again for some time. They reported that the repertoire felt incredibly poignant, and some months down the line that feeling has only grown.
Nicholas Maw wrote his 'Voices of Memory' to a 大象传媒 commission commemorating the 300th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell. It ends with a chaconne, a form in which Purcell excelled, embellishing a theme from Maw's own 'Life Studies' for 15 solo strings'.
Alban Gerhardt has described Dvo艡谩k鈥檚 Cello Concerto as a mixed blessing for cellists: 鈥楢 blessing because not only cellists claim that it is the most beautiful concerto for any instrument. But a curse too, as no other concerto is as strong as 鈥渢he Dvo艡谩k鈥�, which is why so few concertos of the vast repertoire are being performed.鈥�

Presented by Penny Gore.

2pm
Beethoven: Ah! perfido - scena and aria, op. 65
Strauss: Metamorphosen
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op. 55 (Eroica)
Rhian Lois, soprano
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

3.30pm
Maw: Voices of Memory
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
William Boughton, conductor

3.55pm
Dvo艡谩k: Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104
Alban Gerhardt, cello
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Anu Tali, conductor