Music and Nature
Violin and director Zoë Beyers
Delius On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring
Delius A Song Before Sunrise
Caroline Shaw and the swallow
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Pastoral
Saturday 17 February 2024 7.30pm
The King’s School, Macclesfield
Tickets: £27.00 | Under 30s £17 | Full Time Students and Under 18s Free
Many composers have turned to nature for inspiration and this programme reflects some of the finest examples. Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending needs no introduction, even though it has been dislodged from first to second place in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2023. The titles given by Beethoven to the movements of the Pastoral Symphony (e.g. ‘Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country’) might suggest programmatic music but, as one expects with Beethoven, he was less interested in delightful pictures than the emotions they elicit. Two miniature tone poems by Delius reveal his impressionistic skills, whilst and the swallow by the contemporary American composer, Caroline Shaw, is a simple but touching arrangement of her choral setting of Psalm 84.
Zoë Beyers directs the NCO for the first time and is the soloist in The Lark Ascending. In 2020 she was appointed leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and appears regularly as guest leader with many other orchestras including the Hallé, RLPO, BBC Symphony, CBSO, Philharmonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
This concert has been generously sponsored by Caro Brown.
