Performance on 3

Presented by Catherine Bott, live from City Halls, Glasgow. The BBC SSO with a programme of English classics by Walton, Britten and Elgar. Martyn Brabbins kicks off the BBC SSO's British music series with Elgar's 'concert overture' In the South, actually a big, dynamic symphonic movement. Britten's Les illuminations, settings of poems by Rimbaud, encompasses an enormous dramatic range, from biting wit to deep pathos. Opening the second half of the concert, Susan Gritton gives the first concert performance of three extra songs that Britten left out of the published score of Les illuminations, which have recently been orchestrated by Colin Matthews. The concert ends with a fine symphony that has been unfairly neglected since its unsuccessful 1960 premiere. However, Walton's Second Symphony has been making a comeback in recent years as an eloquent late flowering of the composer's inspiration. Elgar: In the South (Alassio) Britten: Les illuminations Susan Gritton soprano BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins conductor.