BBC  Symphony Orchestra - NOSPR

Guest orchestras appearing at NOSPR offer more than the opportunity to experience, here in Katowice, the distinctive sound that serves as the musical calling card of distant cities. Visiting ensembles, too, can draw inspiration from the riches of Polish musical culture. In the case of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, this aspect is especially significant, given its ongoing series of recordings devoted to Grażyna Bacewicz’s orchestral works.

This time, however, the British musicians will bring to Silesia a symphonic postcard from their own capital. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘A London Symphony’ perfectly captures the atmosphere of a great modern metropolis, where echoes of centuries-old traditions continue to resonate beneath the surface.

The concert will open with what Johannes Brahms ironically described in a letter to Clara Schumann as “a little piano concerto with a little, pretty scherzo” – his own Piano Concerto No. 2. In fact, it is a monumental work whose four-movement design stretched the boundaries of the genre as it was then understood, earning it the nickname “a symphony with piano obbligato”.

Szymon Maliszewski

Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 130 minutes

Everything you need to know before you come to the NOSPR – practical advice for those attending events.

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