Tippett, Szymanowski and Debussy

A triptych of 20th century works by Debussy, Tippett and Symanowski each floods their musical canvass with colour and sensation. Together they offer a vibrant, unusually sensual portrait of their age.

‘A song without words for orchestra’, Tippett’s final work was inspired by a lake in Senegal, flushed pink by the midday sun. The result is an ecstatic hymn to nature teeming with rhythmic energy and thick slashes of melody. Foremost Tippett specialist Sir Andrew Davis, conducts The Rose Lake alongside two other richly coloured works – the Suite from Debussy’s shadowy fairytale opera Pelléas et Mélisande, which receives its UK premiere here, and Symanowski’s sumptuous Violin Concerto.