Live at the BBC Proms: Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus in Debussy's twilight Nocturnes and a rare chance to hear Ethel Smyth's Mass.
Live at the BBC Proms: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Sakari Oramo, in Debussy's twilight Nocturnes, and a rare chance to hear Ethel Smyth's Mass.
Presented by Petroc Trelawny, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Claude Debussy: Nocturnes
20.05
Interval: The music historian Leah Broad joins Petroc Trelawny to explore Smyth's choral writing.
20.25
Ethel Smyth: Mass in D major
Nardus Williams (soprano)
Bethan Langford (mezzo-soprano)
Robert Murray (tenor)
Božidar Smiljanić (bass-baritone)
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)
Ethel Smyth wasn’t especially religious: the text and images of the Catholic Mass simply thrilled her. ‘What words! What words!’ she exclaimed, and her monumental Mass in D major is one of the crowning glories of the British choral tradition. Following their widely admired 2019 recording (‘fiercely committed, highly persuasive’ – BBC Music Magazine) Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra give the first Proms performance since the composer’s own lifetime, with rising operatic star Nardus Williams heading an impressive quartet of soloists. Debussy’s Nocturnes begin the evening in a very different, but no less beautiful world – blurring the edges of sound itself to create music that seems to glow in the dark.
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Ethel Smyth
Suite for strings, Op 1a
Orchestra: Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim. Conductor: Douglas Bostock.- British Music for Strings III.
- CPO.
- 1-5.
Broadcast
- Sat 20 Aug 2022 19:30BBC Radio 3
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