BBC Philharmonic - The Firebird

John Storgårds conductor
Senja Rummukainen cello
CBSO Chorus

Butterworth A Shropshire Lad, rhapsody
Elgar Cello Concerto
Shostakovich Symphony No. 2, ‘To October’
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite, 1945

A nostalgia for England and its countryside is captured in the orchestral rhapsody and ‘A Shropshire Lad’, after words by the Victorian poet A.E Housman. George Butterworth was passionate about the nation’s folk heritage, collecting over 300 songs during his lifetime which was cut so very short in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.

Written in the aftermath of that war, Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a lament for a disappearing world. Young Finnish cellist and finalist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition joins us for this most heartfelt of works. Intimate and plaintive, Elgar captures the very soul of the instrument.

From our green and pleasant land, we travel to the depths of Russia. The land of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker also gave us the magical, majestic world of Stravinsky’s Firebird. The October Revolution is remembered in Shostakovich’s Second Symphony as John Storgårds continues his retrospective of this 20th century great.