Â鶹Éç

Live from the Barbican

Presented by Ian Skelly

The Â鶹Éç Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner: Schubert's 8th Symphony, Henze's Erlkönig and Thomas Larcher's A Padmore Cycle with tenor Mark Padmore. The Â鶹Éç Symphony Chorus join for John Adams' Harmonium.

At the heart of this programme lies the music - and inspiration - of Schubert. His spacious, warmly radiant 'Unfinished' is often considered the first truly Romantic symphony. Hans Werner Henze responded, like Schubert, to the terror of the evil Elf-king in his balletic Erlkönig fantasy, while Tyrolean composer Thomas Larcher quotes from Schubert's Das Wandern (from "Die schöne Müllerin") in his scintillating cycle written for renowned tenor Mark Padmore - this is the world premiere of the orchestrated version. We are back in the world of poetry for John Adams' mesmerising choral work, Harmonium (1980), in which he illuminates and dramatises verse by John Donne and Emily Dickinson on those subjects so close to Schubert: love and death.

Schubert: Symphony No.8 in D minor D.759 ('Unfinished')
Henze: Erlkönig
Thomas Larcher: A Padmore Cycle (world premiere of orchestrated version)

8.35pm Interval: Composer-pianist Thomas Larcher performs the second of Schubert's 3 Klavierstücke
D.946. Plus readings of the three poems by John Donne and Emily Dickinson which John Adams sets in Harmonium.

9.00pm
John Adams: Harmonium

Mark Padmore (tenor)
Â鶹Éç Symphony Chorus
Â鶹Éç Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor).