Prom 33: Grieg, Sibelius, Schumann and Hindemith

Live at BBC Proms: BBC Philharmonic and conductor John Storgards with soprano Lise Davidsen and cellist Alban Gerhardt in Grieg, Sibelius, Schumann and Hindemith.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Martin Handley

Grieg: Peer Gynt (excerpts)
Sibelius: Luonnotar; Karelia Suite
Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129
Hindemith: Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'

BBC Philharmonic
Lise Davidsen (soprano)
Alban Gerhardt (cello)
John Storgårds (conductor)

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Proms debut singing Solveig's Song from Grieg's incidental music to Ibsen's dark drama 'Peer Gynt' and in Sibelius's late, great tone-poem Luonnotar. The sophisticated orchestral textures and sensuous melodies of Luonnotar contrast with the rough-hewn folk music of the same composer's struggle for freedom from Russian tyranny in his buoyant Karelia Suite.
Hindemith's opera 'Mathis der Maler', is set at the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was dubbed as "degenerate" by the Nazi regime who then banned all performances of his music. But not before the Symphony drawn from the opera was premiered in March 1934 at one of the early peaks of Hitler's power by one his artistic favourites and persuasive defenders of the artistic credo, Wilhelm Furtwängler. Alban Gerhardt is the soloist in Schumann's Cello Concerto, which rejects overt solo virtuosity, favouring instead dialogue between cello and orchestra.