VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No.7)
XENAKIS Pleiades
HOLST The Planets

Martyn Brabbins conductor
Elizabeth Watts soprano
4-Mality
O Duo
Holst Singers (women's voices)

One of the greatest – and most popular – of all British orchestral works ends tonight's programme. Martyn Brabbins conducts Holst's astrological suite, The Planets, with the Holst Singers ushering us into nothingness in the closing 'Neptune'. Iannis Xenakis's Pleiades, too, looks to the skies. Scored for a sextet of exotic percussion, Pleiades portrays, in the composer's words, 'clouds, nebulas and galaxies of the fragmented dust of beats organised by rhythm'. It's a work of great drama, at times quite brutal, and drawing on Xenakis's experiences in the Second World War during which he lost the sight in one eye. Vaughan Williams's chilly evocation of the vast, uninhabited wastes of the South Pole opens the evening, with Elizabeth Watts returning for the wordless soprano part.

Elizabeth Watts is a member of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme which is supported by Aviva plc.

BEETHOVEN The Creatures of Prometheus - overture
WAGNER Tannhauser - 'Wie Todesahnung Dämmrung …O du, mein holder Abendstern'
PUCCINI Tosca - 'Tre sbirri, Una carrozza' (Act 1, Te Deum)
VERDI Falstaff - 'Ehi paggio!... L'onore Ladri!' (Act 1)
BEETHOVEN Fantasia in C minor for piano, chorus and orchestra, 'Choral Fantasy'
DENZA, arr. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Funiculi, funicula
Trad. arr. BRITTEN The Foggy, Foggy Dew (Suffolk Song)
Trad. arr. CHRIS HAZELL Folk Song Medley: The Turtle Dove (England)
Loch Lomond (Scotland)
Cariad cyntaf (Wales)
Molly Malone (Ireland) (BBC commission: world premiere)
ANNA MEREDITH new work (BBC commission: world premiere)
ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance March No.1
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Sea Songs
ARNE arr. SARGENT Rule, Britannia!
PARRY orch. ELGAR Jerusalem
The National Anthem

Sir Roger Norrington conductor
Bryn Terfel bass-baritone
Helene Grimaud piano
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus

LIADOV The Enchanted Lake
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6

Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Elisabeth Leonskaja piano

LIADOV The Enchanted Lake
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 2
MUSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition

Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Elisabeth Leonskaja piano

SCHNITTKE Viola Concerto
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1

Jonas Alber conductor
Maxim Rysanov viola
Shai Wosner piano