Sir Andrew Davis's 2022 Prom with the BBC Philharmonic

Following the death earlier this week of conductor Sir Andrew Davis, Radio 3 revisits his last appearance at the BBC Proms.

Davis was one of the great exponents of the music of Michael Tippett, and in July 2022 he conducted the BBC Philharmonic in a Prom that paired Tippett's extraordinary Fourth Symphony with Vaughan Williams's own Fourth Symphony.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 4 in F minor

Interval - reflecting on Sir Andrew Davis's musical legacy, we're joined by mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers, former director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Paul Hughes, and former violinist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra Daniel Meyer.

Michael Tippett: Symphony No 4

British music: it isn't always what you think. Written as Europe lurched towards the war, Vaughan Williams's volcanic Fourth Symphony is a mighty cry of protest and rage, expressed in music that burns itself into the soul. A generation later, in the Cold War, Michael Tippett began his final symphony with the most primal of sounds - a human breath. This isn't so much a symphony as a whole life, in all its rapture, its chaos and its teeming, tumultuous beauty.

BBC Philharmonic
Andrew Davis (conductor)