Part 1

From the Royal Albert Hall, London. Presented by Andrew McGregor.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Mendelssohn's magical overture that he wrote at the age of only 17, coupled with extracts from his later incidental music to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Augusta Read Thomas's new Violin Concerto No 3, subtitled Juggler in Paradise, is intended to suggest or invoke the image of the violin's role. The soloist plays a rhapsodic cadenza throughout, making a path through rich orchestral textures dominated by a pointillistic paradise of bell sounds.

Jennifer Koh (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiri Belohlavek (conductor)

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream - Overture and incidental music
Augusta Read Thomas: Violin Concerto No 3 - Juggler in Paradise (BBC co-commission).