Mozart Symphony No. 32
Brahms Violin Concerto
Zemlinsky Psalm 23, Op. 14
Szymanowski Symphony No. 3 (The Song of the Night)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Joshua Bell violin
Jeremy Ovenden tenor
London Philharmonic Choir



Wracked by personal crises, Alexander Zemlinsky made a heartfelt cry to God in his setting of the Twenty-Third Psalm. The music moves from trepidation to despair to ecstasy, at once sensitive and majestic. In its glistening bid for the heavenly, it makes a perfect companion to Szymanowski’s Third Symphony, The Song of the Night (a setting of Jalaluddin Rumi’s Sufi poetry). From a vast nocturnal landscape, a human spirit ascends to join with the divine, soaring into the ether. Languorous sensuality radiates through this all-encompassing score, the final statement in a concert that follows two acknowledged masterworks by Mozart and Brahms with two exquisite twentieth-century rarities.

Concert generously supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant programme

FREE pre-concert event | 6.15pm–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall
Dr Stephen Downes, Reader in Musicology at the University of Surrey discusses the music of Szymanowski and Zemlinsky.

Hear it first!
Select a link below to listen to selected movements from this concert (Flash Player opens in a new window).

Mozart: Symphony No. 32 - I. Allegro spiritoso
Mozart: Symphony No. 32 - II. Andante
Brahms: Violin Concerto - I. Allegro non troppo
Brahms: Violin Concerto - Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
Szymanowski: Symphony No. 3 - I. Moderato assai
Szymanowski: Symphony No. 3 - II. Allegretto tranquillo
Szymanowski: Symphony No. 3 - III. Largo

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This concert will be broadcast live by BBC Radio 3




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