The London Symphony Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams

Tchaikovsky faces his demons in the fate-filled Fourth Symphony, before the ravishing pastoral music of English composer Vaughan Williams in his seldom-heard Flos Campi and Dona nobis pacem.
Tchaikovsky soars out of the depths towards a glorious resolution in his Symphony No 4.
After the interval, Tchaikovsky's Russian intensity is tempered by Vaughan Williams' complex and radical brand of English pastoralism as the viola soloist Antoine Tamestit, an LSO Spotlight Artist, joins the orchestra and its chorus for his Flos Campi. Setting words from the biblical poem ‘Song of Songs’, Flos Campi (Flower of the Field) is a love song of often beguiling beauty. And the LSO’s intriguing programme ends with one of Vaughan Williams' most powerful works, the forty-minute long cantata Dona nobis pacem. Completed in 1936, Dona nobis pacem is scored for choir, vocal soloists and orchestra and draws on the composer’s own experiences of war, and eyes the impending cataclysm. It’s emotionally direct, a passionate, anguished and, at times, almost unbearably beautiful cry for peace.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi for Viola and Chorus
Vaughan Williams: Cantata Dona nobis pacem

Antoine Tamestit (viola)
Julia Sitkovetsky (soprano)
Ashley Riches (bass-baritone)
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)

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