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Mezzo Sarah Connolly as Octavian and Soprano Amanda Roocroft as the Marschallin in Strauss's 'Der Rosenkavalier.' ENO, 2012 (playing this month).

I want to go to there.

#sarah connolly #amanda roocroft #opera #eno #der rosenkavalier #strauss

BBC Proms 2011 - Prom 41 - 14/08/2011

Programme

Joby Talbot - Chacony in G minor (after Purcell) BBC Commission, World Premiere

Britten - Cantata misericordium

Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem

Britten - Spring Symphony

In a recreation of a concert from 1963 in which Britten conducted his own work, last night's prom opened with a slight twist. A new arrangement of Purcell's Chacony in G minor by Joby Talbot. When researching for this arrangement, he struggled to see how he could improve this dense, complex piece, when he 'struck' on the idea of bells. The arrangement is certainly different, and the bells add a new depth to the piece. The first piece of Britten's is his Cantata misericordium, a commission for the Red Cross based on the bible story of the Good Samaritan. The rich, choral harmonies of the BBC Singers create a sense of turmoil, as a Samaritan would have been feeling. Alan Oke as the Traveller and Leigh Melrose as the Samaritan are balanced and play well against each other. An earlier piece of Britten's, Sinfonia da Requiem creates an angst through it's first movement, a tension building through the piece before we receive a kind of release, though it isn't without a sense of underlying raw uneasiness. The Spring Symphony, as Britten put it, is 'the progress of Winter to Spring and the reawakening of the earth and life which that means', something which can definitely be heard in the settings of the poems. Amanda Roocroft's solo in The Driving Boy with the Trinity Boys Choir was charming and as we progress through the second movement we once again hear this sense of uneasiness in Britten's music. The fourth movement ties up the whole evenings programme, giving us more than a flavour of the progression of Britten's music.