NOSPR / Alsop / Currie / Christmas Overture - NOSPR

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote, “The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation." In the "Fantasia on Greensleeves," we not only hear the titular traditional English folk song, but also "Lovely Joan," a folk song from Norfolk in the middle part of the work.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Christmas Overture, originally composed as part of the musical accompaniment for Alfred Noyes's children's play "The Forest of Wild Thyme," introduces us to the world of holiday melodies, including "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen."

James MacMillan, in his concerto "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel," reaches back to the titular 15th-century hymn. The creation of the piece also had a symbolic dimension: it began on the first Sunday of Advent in 1991 and ended on Easter Sunday in 1992.

The evening will culminate with Robert Schumann's "Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major," Op. 97, which is chronologically his last symphony. In its penultimate fourth movement, it brings a musical memory of the celebration at Cologne Cathedral that made a great impression on the composer.

Agnieszka Nowok-Zych

Approximate time of concert: 80 min