CHARLES IVES Three Places in New England
CHARLES IVES Central Park in the Dark
CHARLES IVES The Unanswered Question
CHARLES IVES The Country Band March

BBC Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson conductor

A recording of BBC Radio 3's Discovering Music, presented and conducted by David Robertson and featuring excerpts, full performances and discussion of the works above.

In order to achieve a full house, we have to distribute more tickets that there are studio seats as not everyone who receives free tickets uses them. Please arrive in plenty of time, as admission is on a first come, first served basis.

Bartok/Van Gogh: Organic Symmetries

BARTOK Concerto for two pianos and percussion
BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra

David Robertson conductor

No progressive composer ever drew more fruitful inspiration from folk music than Bela Bartok, who died shortly after making his last public appearance in the Concerto for two pianos and after completing what has since become his most single popular work, the wistful, witty and ultimately life-affirming Concerto for Orchestra. In the second of his two special audio-visual concert presentations, David Robertson introduces and conducts performances of these two 20th-century masterworks, drawing upon the art of Vincent Van Gogh and using projected images of his drawings and paintings to illustrate the fascinating parallels that can be traced between Bartók’s folk-derived music and the organic patterns and proportions of the natural world. (See also Thursday 29 November)

Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm
Fountain Room
Meet the Musicians
A chance to hear members of the BBC SO talk about their work and to put your questions to them.

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
BEETHOVEN Romance in F major
KAIJA SAARIAHO Mirage (UK premiere)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No 7 in A major

Jiri Belohlavek conductor
Karita Mattila soprano
Jennifer Pike violin
Anssi Karttunen cello

The most expansive of the three rejected overtures that Beethoven wrote for his only opera, Fidelio, and the most rhythmically supple of his nine symphonies frames composer Kaija Saariaho’s new work for soprano, cello and orchestra, commissioned for Karita Mattila, one of the most glittering of of vocal superstars and cellist Anssi Kurttunen. The BBC SO has had a long and fruitful relationship with the Finnish composer, a creator of highly distinctive soundworlds, and performs the UK premiere of her new opera Adriana Mater at the Barbican on 24 April.

Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm
Fountain Room
An introduction to tonight's music.

OLIVER KNUSSEN The Way to Castle Yonder
BERG Violin Concerto
GEORGE BENJAMIN Dance Figures
BRITTEN Sinfona da Requiem

Oliver Knussen conductor
Leila Josefowicz violin

Nine fleeting soundscapes of shifting moods and textures, George Benjamin’s Dance Figures was given its UK premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the 2006 Proms. Also given its UK premiere by the BBC SO, in May 1936, Berg’s last completed score was inscribed ‘To the memory of an angel’ but proved as much a requiem for the composer himself as for the 18-year-old Manon Gropius whose death prompted its composition. Oliver Knussen’s ‘pot-pourri for orchestra’ reworks the interludes from his one-act fantasy opera Higglety Pigglety Pop! based upon Maurice Sendak’s ‘theatrical requiem’ for his dog Jennie. Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, was written in 1940 in memory of his parents.

Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm
Fountain Room
An introduction to tonight’s music.