A Sea Symphony

Full sail for new shores: Sakari Oramo conducts Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, Britten’s Double Concerto and the London premiere of Oliver Knussen’s exquisite Cleveland Pictures.

“Behold, the sea itself!” With a ringing fanfare, and a mighty choral shout Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony takes the poetry of Walt Whitman and opens the floodgates to a spring tide of inspiration. BBC Symphony Orchestra chief conductor Sakari Oramo has a special affinity for British music, and tonight he ends the season under full sail.

It’s all about new horizons, after all: so what better way to open than with the first London performance of a magical work by the much-missed Oliver Knussen. Cleveland Pictures is Knussen at the top of his game: jewel-like in its colour, precision and sense of wonder. It’ll cast its spell over this performance of Britten’s atmospheric, rarely heard Double Concerto – with two uniquely sensitive soloists, Vilde Frang and Lawrence Power, supplying their own special poetry.

Recorded at the Barbican on Friday 24th May 2024. Presented by Martin Handley

Oliver Knussen: Cleveland Pictures
Benjamin Britten: Double Concerto for Violin and Viola

Interval

Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1)

Silja Aalto (soprano)
Morgan Pearse (baritone)
Vilde Frang (violin)
Lawrence Power (viola)
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)