BRITTEN, HENZE, MENDELSSOHN, SUCKLING - Composers

OLIVER KNUSSEN - Conductor

JANE ATKINS - Soloist

HENZE
Symphony No 1 (17’)
SUCKLING
Six Speechless Songs (14’)
BRITTEN
Lachrymae (15’)
MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No 1 in C minor (32’)

Two first symphonies frame renowned British conductor Oliver Knussen’s provocative, wide-ranging programme: the powerful, rapturous First Symphony by German composer Hans Werner Henze and Mendelssohn’s dramatic First, astonishingly written when he was just 15.

SCO Principal Viola Jane Atkins is the soloist in Britten’s moving Lachrymae, based on a melancholy lute song by Dowland, and the concert is completed with the rich lyricism of Six Speechless Songs by SCO Associate Composer Martin Suckling, written to celebrate the Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary.