The London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra in music from the The Bad and the Beautiful, Vaughan Williams' wartime Fifth Symphony and Bertrand Chamayou joins them for Ravel's Piano Concerto.
Hollywood comes to the Barbican with music from The Bad and the Beautiful and its ageless theme song also called "Love is For the Very Young" - one of the most beautiful themes in movie history.
Like a ringmaster, Ravel sets his Piano Concerto in G major in motion with a flick of the whip. Then come Basque folk melodies and glittering trills followed by a slow movement with a melody like a stately sarabande. This hypnotic 34 bar melody was a painstaking high-wire act for Ravel. As he wrote: ‘That flowing phrase! How I worked over it bar by bar! It nearly killed me!' And that is followed by a bravura third movement infused with the sounds of the jazz age. Bertrand Chamayou - one of France's leading pianists - promises to re-create Ravel's brilliant Concerto afresh.
And in the second half, Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra follow up their stunning pre-pandemic performances of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with the sophisticated, original Fifth. The work deeply moved audiences who heard it at its premiere during World War II, its bittersweet melodies and transcendent climax seemingly offering listeners a vision of future peace.
Presented by Martin Handley.
David Raksin: The Bad and the beautiful - music for the film
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Vaughan Williams: Symphony no. 5 in D major
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)
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Music Played
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David Raksin
Suite from The Bad and the Beautiful
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano. -
Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto in G
Performer: Bertrand Chamayou. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano. -
Claude Debussy
La fille aux cheveux de lin
Performer: Bertrand Chamayou. -
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Bredon Hill from On Wenlock Edge
Performer: Graham Johnson. Singer: Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Ensemble: Duke Quartet. -
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Kyrie from Mass in G minor
Choir: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks. -
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 5 In D Major
Performer: Betrand Chamayou. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano. -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sonata in D major for two pianos, K 448
Performer: Christoph Eschenbach. Performer: Justus Frantz.- Mozart: Music for Piano Duet: Justus Frantz, Christoph Eschenbach.
- Deutsche Grammophon.
- 11.
Broadcast
- Thu 9 May 2024 19:30³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3