BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Studio Concerts Bartók & Brahms

A live BBC Radio 3 broadcast with BBC Philharmonic Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon.

Kristóf Baráti opens this afternoon with Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto – a work that truly shows the composer’s consummate understanding of writing for strings. Despite being written between 1907 and 1908, Bartók’s other first violin concerto - his first - was only published after his death in 1956 so the piece we hear today is the only violin concerto that Bartók himself officially recognized.

We also hear Brahms’s Second Symphony – full of warmth and bubbling with optimism. Whilst it took Brahms fourteen years to complete his First Symphony, his Second – with its cheerful and flowing melodies – was penned in a single summer holiday.