Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Viola Lawrence Power and pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips

One of the foremost viola players, Laurence Power brings a spell-binding programme of music to Radio 3's 10th Anniversary Lunchtime Concert series, at the Wigmore Hall in London. Schumann's Marchenbilder (Fairy Tales) creates a romantic world of fantasy and child-like imagination,and is one of the few 19th century works specifically written for viola. Shostakovich's Gadfly Suite, taken from his film score of 1955, includes the famous Romance, known to many as the theme to Reilly, Ace of Spies. Laurence Power and pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips are also champions of the 20th century composer York Bowen, known as the English Rachmaninov. Bowen loved the dark autumnal tone of the viola, preferring it to the violin, and the sonata to be heard today is richly romantic and rhapsodic.