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Edward Gardner conducts Elgar, Tippett and Coleridge-Taylor

Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Elgar's First Symphony, and Steven Osborne is the soloist in Tippett's Piano Concerto.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, Edward Gardner leads the London Philharmonic in a concert of English music.

By the end of the 19th Century, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast had gained him an international reputation. In 1899 Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned to write for the Three Choirs Festival and he produced the well-received Solemn Prelude. Well-received but lost until the current Three Choirs chief executive rediscovered it in the British Library after some musical sleuthing, just in time for last year's Festival, when once again it was heard in Worcester Cathedral. Tonight, the LPO present the London (and broadcast) premiere of Coleridge-Taylor's music. And, just as it did in 1899, this evening the Solemn Prelude shares the bill with the music of Edward Elgar.

Elgar, forever beset by crippling self-doubt, scored a resounding success with his 1908 Symphony No. 1, which was swiftly taken up and lauded throughout Europe. Its potent combination of surging nobilmente themes and dazzling orchestration, offset by introspection and intimacy, still strike a resonant chord today.

Michael Tippett's magical, shimmering Piano Concerto is a wonderful example of his unique, mid-century take on the English pastoral tradition. It's played by Steven Osborne, a pianist widely acknowledged to be the composer's foremost interpreter.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Solemn Prelude (London premiere)
Tippett Piano: Concerto

8.30 pm
Interval music (from CD)
Debussy: Children's Corner
Steven Osborne (piano)

8.50 pm
Elgar: Symphony No. 1 A flat major Op.55

Steven Osborne (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor)

2 hours, 28 minutes

Last on

Wed 25 Jan 2023 19:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

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Recipes

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Music Played

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Solemn Prelude (London premiere)

  • Michael Tippett

    Piano Concerto

  • Claude Debussy

    Debussy: Children's Corner

    Performer: Steven Osborne.
    • Hyperion.

  • Edward Elgar

    Symphony No. 1 in A flat, Op. 55

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

    Performer: Nigel Kennedy. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • Kennedy plays Bach with the Berlin Philharmonic.
    • EMI.
    • 7.

Broadcast

  • Wed 25 Jan 2023 19:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3