Sir Mark Elder conductor | Benjamin Grosvenor piano
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis 15′
Ravel Piano Concerto in G major 23′
Thea Musgrave Song of the Enchanter 6′
Sibelius Symphony No.2 43′
Many of our concerts this season help tell the stories of composers and the music you will hear. Opening the season, Sir Mark offers the first of our ‘Stories behind the music’ concerts. What Vaughan Williams learnt from Ravel about orchestration was put to superb effect in the string sonorities of the Tallis Fantasia, his spiritual, moving first masterpiece. Benjamin Grosvenor deepens his ongoing relationship with the Hallé with Ravel’s G major concerto, which has, Sir Mark feels, ‘something of the circus never far away in the music’; it’s laced with solos that players relish and is blessed by a song-like slow movement of breath-taking beauty. Conceived in Italy, Mediterranean warmth unlocked Sibelius’s creative juices in his majestic Second Symphony. Infused with late-Romantic melodies, it was the Hallé, under Richter, who gave the British premiere. It’s prefaced by Musgrave’s short Sibelian homage, which, replete with glowing orchestral textures and subtle quotes from the Master, is inspired by a story from the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic.