Halle - Prokofiev, Beamish, Dvorak

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Mark Elder conducts the Halle orchestra in Prokofiev's Symphony no.1, the sprightly and buoyant 'Classical'. The rest of the programme contains some colourful storytelling. Sally Beamish's new cello concerto, with its evocative title The Song Gatherer, is a Hallé co-commission, written with the outstanding cellist Robert Cohen in mind. Here the cellist reflects on songs from various sources. A Yiddish lullaby, folk tunes from Poland and South Africa, the songs of exotic birds and more are woven into the flow, at once delicate and expressive and highly personal. Dvorák's fairytale in his late tone poem The Wood Dove similarly has shades of folk music, and a bewitching mastery of orchestral sound features in his lively Slavonic Dances.

Prokofiev Symphony No.1,
Sally Beamish The Song Gatherer (Cello Concerto No.2) UK premiere
Dvorák The Wood Dove *
Dvorák Slavonic Dances

Robert Cohen (cello)
The Halle
conductor Andrew Gourlay *
conductor Mark Elder

Followed by our continuing series of 100 years of German Song from the Wigmore Hall. Tonight mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau perform songs written in the 1830s by Fanny Mendelssohn and Carl Loewe.