Andrew Gourlay raises his baton to open today’s programme with Knussen's delightful
The Way to Castle Yonder.
Taken from fantasy opera, Higglety Pigglety Pop – a collaboration between Knussen and American author Maurice Sendak – this piece brings vividly coloured illustrations from page to note. Of his opera, Knusson said ‘Higglety is an evocation of the music I wanted to write [as a child] but didn’t know how’.
Continuing the thread of youth, the orchestra advance with Nursey Suite, a piece which Elgar, in his later years, ‘worked up’ from his youthful and unpublished compositions.
The afternoon continues with Payne’s Half-heard in the Stillness, a ten-minute orchestral tone-poem. Payne describes himself as ‘a passionate Elgarian’ and uses Elgar’s Memorial Chimes - written for the Loughborough Carillon - as his starting point.
The gestation of today’s penultimate piece, Finzi’s Farewell to Arms, took place over many years and reflects his enthusiasm for seventeenth-century poets – brought to life today by Tenor, Robin Tritschler.
Closing the programme is Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, a powerful orchestral work inspired by the texts from the Requiem Mass and dedicated to the memory of Britten’s parents. With this dedication in mind, the final movement, ‘Requiem aeternam’ – meaning ‘eternal rest grant to them’ is particularly poignant.
This concert is a live broadcast for ±«Óãtv Radio 3.
