Prom 54: Britten, Raymond Yiu, Nielsen & Janáček

Proms regular Edward Gardner continues this year’s Nielsen anniversary celebrations with the Flute Concerto – a work that expresses what Nielsen perceived as the instrument’s ‘Arcadian’ quality. This gentle, pastoral quality battles, however, with darker forces, characterfully symbolised by the bass trombone. Both Janá∂ek’s Sinfonietta and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem are also vivid expressions of contrast – in mood, texture and colour. The five movements of the Sinfonietta are all scored for a different – and sometimes unlikely – combination of instruments, while the three episodes in Britten’s elegiac Sinfonia da Requiem paint different stages of mourning, from grief, to anger and finally an uneasy acceptance.

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