Sir Donald mit Brahms

In the organizer's words:

With this concert, Sir Donald Runnicles takes up his post as Chief Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and at the same time opens our British Festival. The evening full of European and British music history begins with Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis", a deeply emotional and majestic piece that focuses on the beauty of the English musical tradition. William Walton's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra focuses on the violin's bigger sister. With virtuoso solo passages and a dynamic orchestral accompaniment, this piece provides goosebumps and shows the viola in all its versatility and expressiveness.
The crowning finale is Johannes Brahms' Fourth Symphony, a masterpiece that did not have it easy at the beginning. Its beginning seemed all too abstract to contemporaries. Today, 140 years after it was composed, the poetry of this very beginning, the joyous frenzy of the third movement and the solemnity of the finale make Brahms' Fourth one of the most popular symphonies ever.

Program

Ralph Vaughan Williams
"Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"

William Walton
Concerto for viola and orchestra

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E minor

Performers

Sir Donald Runnicles | Conductor

Timothy Ridout | Viola

Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra