Prom 29: Stravinsky, Messiaen and Ravel

Afternoon on 3 - with Jonathan Swain.

Another chance to hear the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Nicholas Collon, performing works by Mozart, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Ravel, including his piano concerto with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet as soloist.

Presented from the Royal Albert Hall by Petroc Trelawny.

2pm:
Mozart: Idomeneo - ballet music

2.25pm:
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

2.50pm:
Messiaen, orch.Dingle: Un oiseau des arbres de Vie (Oiseau tui) (world premiere)

2:55pm:
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

3.20pm:
Ravel, arr. C Matthews: Miroirs - Oiseaux tristes (BBC commission - world premiere)

3.25pm:
Ravel: La valse

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
BBC Philharmonic
Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Mozart's Idomeneo owes its ballet sequence to the influence of French opera, and it launches a programme featuring two Frenchmen who idolised Mozart: Ravel and Messiaen. Ravel's Piano Concerto in G adds a jazzy colouring to its Classical influences, while Oiseaux tristes and La valse contrast the doleful calls of lost forest birds with a dark, swirling portrait of the disintegration of Vienna. The world premiere of a recently rediscovered work by Messiaen - originally intended for the composer's Éclairs sur l'au-delà - brings more birdsong (that of the tui from New Zealand), while Stravinsky's urbane neo-Classical Symphony combines piquancy and elegance.

[First heard on 7th August]

Followed by:

Pierné: Les Cathédrales
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena, conductor.