BBC Philharmonic - Let me tell you

Elena Schwarz conductor
Jennifer France soprano

Beethoven Overture, Coriolan
Hans Abrahamsen Let me tell you
Unsuk Chin subito con forza
Beethoven Symphony No. 1

Beethoven may be centre stage, but Shakespeare is once more in the wings for an extraordinary programme conducted by Elena Schwarz.

Ophelia, Hamlet’s doomed lover, narrates Hans Abrahamsen’s prize-winning song cycle Let me tell you. With a vivid and virtuosic role, Jennifer France becomes an empowered and defiant heroine worthy of a Scandi drama. Roman General Coriolanus appears in tonight’s curtain raiser; fortunately, Beethoven’s version is more child friendly than Shakespeare’s. Coriolan is also the starting point of Unsuk Chin’s miniature for orchestra, subito con forza. Powerful and impulsive, Unsuk Chin pulls no punches in her homage to Beethoven, surely something he would have approved of!

Beethoven’s symphonic canon is to the concert platform what Shakespeare’s plays are to the stage. We join the man taking Vienna by storm at the start of his journey with the ebullient First Symphony. (Exit, pursued by a bear).