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Brutalism meets orchestral beauty as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo mark 40 years of the Barbican Centre with music as idealistic, integral and provocative as the building itself.

For his 1912 ballet depicting the pure, enduring love of Daphnis and Chloé, Michel Fokine knew who to ask for music of the most beguiling atmosphere. This story brimming with exotic passions drew a magnificent score from Maurice Ravel, an orchestra-choral tapestry dripping in nostalgia and opulence.

Six decades and two wars later, our idea of beauty had been changed forever. Judith Weir’s Concrete for speaker, chorus and orchestra (commissioned and premiered by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2008) pays homage to the Barbican – its idealism, its boldness, and the stories of the city from which it emerged. Completing the programme is a concerto performed at the building’s first public concert. Despite the longing lyricism of Edward Elgar’s seminal work for cello and orchestra, it displays many of the rough edges of the twentieth century – as if cast in concrete.

Live from the Barbican, London
Presented by Martin Handley

Judith Weir: Concrete
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

20.25
Interval

20.45
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe

Jamie Parker (speaker)
Senja Rummukainen (cello)
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Chorus
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra
Neil Ferris (Chorus Director)
Sakari Oramo (conductor)