Bacewicz Overture for Orchestra
Sibelius Scenes Historiques Suite 1
Dvořák The Water Goblin
JAC VAN STEEN CONDUCTOR
Join us for the fifth installment in this year’s series of free BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concerts.
Three soloists – all winners of international competitions – make their Ulster Hall debut, together with the dynamic young British conductor Angus Webster, and returning favourites Jessica Cottis and Jac Van Steen.
This show opens with a short overture composed in the depths of World War 2. Written by Grażyna Bacewicz, a pioneering Polish female composer who studied with Nadia Boulanger, the work is full of courage and hope despite a fearful background.
The first set of Scènes Historiques by Sibelius come next, taken from music written for a patriotic pageant, staged in 1899 at a time of increasing Finnish nationalism and originally including Finlandia, which was published separately.
And finally, some Czech mythology rounds off this afternoon event, with Dvořák’s The Water Goblin: music inspired by a Czech Romantic poem found in a collection published by Karel Jaromír Erben, entitled Kytice.
The Ulster Orchestra is conducted by its Honorary Principal Guest Conductor, Jac van Steen.