| Main Performers | James Crabb - accordion,
Anthony Marwood - violin |
| Set List | 'War Elegy', Gurney,
'The Singing', S Beamish (James Crabb)
INTERVAL
'Symphony No.1 in B Flat Minor', Walton
ENCORE
'Conversations of the Muses', from 'Pieces de Clavecinrameau, Suite in D (1724)', J-P Rameau (James Crabb) |
| Performance Notes | Commemorating 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War, the BBC Symphony Orchestra explores English responses to conflict across three generations.
Gassed while fighting in the trenches in 1917, Gurney never fully recovered. His War Elegy (1920) is a characteristically personal lament heavy with bittersweet sadness and regret. Sally Beamish's 1994 Violin Concerto, written for tonights soloist, Anthony Marwood, takes inspiration from Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
While not explicitly programmatic, the slow movement of Walton's First Symphony is among the 20th century's most poignant orchestral cries of grief an echo, perhaps, of horrors past, and a foreshadow of horrors yet to come.
Sally Beamish's 'Violin Concerto', due to be the second piece of the evening, was changed to the London premiere of 'Violin Concerto', also by Sally Beamish, because Anthony Marwood was unwell and could not perform. Marwood was replaced by accordionist James Crabb.
A pro-Palestine demonstration was held outside the Hall prior to the concert.
The event was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. |
| Related Archival Material | Proms Guide (RAHE/1/2014/53),
Programme (RAHE/1/2014/72),
Posters (RAHE/2/2014/41),
Proms Mini-Guide |