Performance on 3 - BBC SO/Knussen

Presented by Petroc Trelawny Oliver Knussen conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Hans Werner Henze, from the Total Immersion event held last weekend at the Barbican Hall, London. Art banned by the Nazis somehow reached young Hans Werner Henze as he grew up in a small German village during the 1930s. It fuelled his desire to become a musician and shaped his worldview. "Everything that the fascists persecute and hate is beautiful to me," he later recalled. An astonishingly prolific and influential composer, Henze's work includes over 30 operas and ballet scores and 10 symphonies. Extremes of emotion meet in his Fourth Symphony, written for large orchestra in 1955. The 'air for orchestra', Fraternité, was described following its world premiere in 1999 as 'a restless search for lasting harmony'. Elogium Musicum, first heard in Leipzig in 2008, is the octogenarian composer's serene, profoundly moving and consoling 'obituary' for his companion of over 40 years. Hans Werner Henze Fraternité Symphony No. 4 Elogium musicum (UK premiere) BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Oliver Knussen conductor Followed by Part 1 of a celebratory concert with the Ulster Orchestra from the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, in which Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley read their poetry. Ulster Orchestra Proinnsias O’Duinn (conductor) Schubert: Rosamunde entr’acte, Act II Michael Longley: Readings for Peter Longley Seamus Heaney: Personal Helicon Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze Seamus Heaney: The Penninsula Michael Longley: Spring Tide Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (Waltz) Duparc: L’invitation au voyage Bernadette Greevy (mezzo-soprano) Ulster Orchestra Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor) CHAN8735 Tr 9