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Celebrating the viola

Contemporary British choral music performed by the ѿý Singers and memorable archive recordings from the ѿý Symphony Orchestra, presented by Fiona Talkington.

Closing this week of programmes celebrating the ѿý Symphony Orchestra and Singers, British composer/conductor Owain Park conducts the ѿý Singers in a programme of contemporary choral music. Alongside his own works is music by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Rhiannon Randle and Joanna Ward, and 'Song' by former ѿý Singers composer in Association Gabriel Jackson.
This afternoon we shine a light on the ѿý SO's Co-Principal Viola Caroline Harrison who's been a member of the orchestra for 30 years. We'll hear a sequence of ѿý SO performances in which she performed. Firstly, at the Barbican in February 2015, Sakari Oramo and the ѿý Symphony Orchestra, celebrated for their Sibelius performances, played his tone poem The Oceanides in its 1914 Yale version. This is how the work was first heard at its premiere in America on Sibelius’s one and only trip there, and it retains many interesting features that the composer removed in a later revision. Australian composer, viola player, and former ѿý Symphony Orchestra Artist in Association Brett Dean was inspired by Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament to create a quirky work for twelve violas. The Beethoven is a letter full of despair written as the composer battled to come to terms with the onset of deafness. Brett Dean’s Testament reimagines this experience and asks some of the players to tune their strings in unusual ways and not to put resin on their bows - to create a world of half-heard sounds and eerie pen-on-parchment scratchings. Thea Musgrave’s 2002 Turbulent Landscapes is her Pictures at an Exhibition. Inspired by Turner paintings including Sunrise with Sea Monsters, The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, and The Exile and the Rock Limpit (Napoleon), Musgrave takes your ears from one canvas to another in vivid orchestral sounds. And finally Prokofiev’s Haydn-inspired symphony with all its classical grace is performed by the ѿý Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo.
Presented by Fiona Talkington.

2pm
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Floodlight, starlight
Gabriel Jackson: Song (I gave upon you)
Paweł Łukaszewski: Like as the waves
Owain Park: For the fallen
Owain Park: The wings of the wind
Rhiannon Randle: On Life’s dividing sea
Joby Talbot: The wishing tree
Joanna Ward: Brambles Fewer
ѿý Singers
Owain Park, conductor

c.2.30pm
Beat Furrer: Psalm
Dieter Schnebel: Motetus I
ѿý Singers
James Weeks, conductor

c.2.55pm
Sibelius: The Oceanides Op. 73 (1914 Yale Version)
ѿý Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

c.3.10pm
Brett Dean: Testament for 12 violas
ѿý SO violas
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

c.3.25pm
Thea Musgrave: Turbulent Landscapes
ѿý Symphony Orchestra
Osmo Vanska, conductor

c.3.50pm
Prokofiev: Classical Symphony
ѿý Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

2 hours, 31 minutes

Music Played

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    Floodlight, Starlight

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    Song (I Gaze Upon You)

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    Like As The Waves

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    For The Fallen

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    The Wings Of The Wind

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    On Life's Dividing Sea

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    The Wishing Tree

  • ѿý Singers & Owain Park

    Brambles Fewer

  • Beat Furrer

    Gloria Tibi Domine - Psalm

    Choir: ѿý Singers. Conductor: James Weeks.
  • Dieter Schnebel

    Motetus I

    Choir: ѿý Singers. Conductor: James Weeks.
  • Jean Sibelius

    The Oceanides Op. 73 'Yale Version'

    Orchestra: ѿý Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sakari Oramo.
  • Brett Dean

    Testament for 12 Violas

    Orchestra: ѿý Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins.
  • Thea Musgrave

    Turbulent Landscapes

    Orchestra: ѿý Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Osmo Vänskä.
  • Anders Hillborg

    Six Pieces for Wind Quintet

    Performer: Klei Quintet.
  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Symphony No.1 in D Op.25 'Classical'

    Orchestra: ѿý Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sakari Oramo.

Broadcast

  • Fri 15 May 2020 14:00