Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Mark Wigglesworth begins his tenure as Chief Conductor of the BSO with Walton and a landmark of English composition.

Walton’s First Symphony displayed the composer at the peak of his symphonic thinking. Its turbulent emotions and high-voltage energy were the fruit of tempestuous events surrounding Walton at the time. After an eloquent, dramatic first movement, a stinging, malicious Scherzo and a truly melancholic slow movement, the finale is totally different in outlook – an almost Elgarian ceremonial jubilation, as if a cloud has lifted.

The Concerto for the Left Hand displays a great deal of resourcefulness and originality on Ravel’s part. Unfolding in a single movement in three sections, dark and powerful, it is so full of illusion and texture that the solo part rarely gives the slightest hint that a mere single hand is involved. The exquisite orchestral scoring leans toward the rich, lower pitches which lends it a rather sombre hue and an apt heroic grandeur.

In the overture to his only comic opera, Wagner skilfully combines the main themes associated with the mastersingers and their apprentices.