VE Day 80th Anniversary
Three BBC orchestras perform Elgar's Violin Concerto (with soloist Anthony Marwood), Britten's war-themed Sinfonia da Requiem and Vaughan Williams' lyrical Symphony No 5.
Marking the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, a special concert of performances from three of the BBC orchestras, opening with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Elgar's deeply passionate Violin Concerto, with soloist Anthony Marwood. Britten, a pacifist composer, expressed the horrors of war in several haunting works, including his Sinfonia da Requiem, commissioned (and eventually rejected) by the Japanese government to mark Emperor Jimmu's 2600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire. Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Finally, Martyn Brabbins directs the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the most popular - and most peaceful - symphony by Vaughan Williams, who witnessed the brutality of war first-hand as an ambulance driver in World War I.
Presented by Mark Forrest.
Elgar
Violin Concerto
Anthony Marwood (violin)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Manze (conductor)
Recorded: Malvern Forum Theatre, Malvern, February 2025
Britten
Sinfonia da Requiem
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Dalia Stasevska (conductor)
Recorded: Barbican Hall, London, October 2019
Vaughan Williams
Symphony No 5
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)
Recorded: Prichard-Jones Hall, Bangor, November 2024
Last on
Music Played
![]()
Edward Elgar
Violin Concerto
Performer: Anthony Marwood. Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Manze.![]()
Benjamin Britten
Sinfonia da Requiem
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dalia Stasevska.![]()
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony No 5
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins.![]()
Franz Schubert
String Quintet in C major, D956: III - Scherzo. Presto - Trio Andante Sostenuto
Ensemble: Raphael Ensemble.- Schubert: String Quintet & String Trio.
- Hyperion.
- 4.
Broadcast
- Mon 5 May 202519:30BBC Radio 3
