Prom 54 (part 2): Britten, Raymond Yiu, Nielsen and Janacek

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, live at the BBC Proms. Britten, Janacek, Nielsen's Flute Concerto with Emily Beynon and a world premiere - Raymond Yiu's Symphony.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Tom Service

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Raymond Yiu: Symphony (BBC commission: world premiere)

8.25 pm INTERVAL

8.45 pm
Nielsen: Flute Concerto
Janácek: Sinfonietta

Andrew Watts (countertenor)
Emily Beynon (flute)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor)

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 Janácek'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. Raymond Yiu's BBC commission is a symphony which features the amazing countertenor voice of Andrew Watts, singing texts by Walt Whitman, Constantine Cavafy,Thom Gunn and John Donne on memories of love and loss.

This Prom will be repeated on Thursday 10th September at 2pm.