The idea of an idyllic English countryside as dreamed of by young men in times of war forms the basis of Sir Mark Elder's second outing with the NSO. Examining the relationship between works forged as the threat of the First World War engulfed Europe and the idealization of 'home', the program includes evocative and moving works from Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth and Maurice Ravel.
George Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody
Based on A.E. Housman's popular 1896 poems that accompanied many a young man to war, A Shropshire Lad takes place in an imagined England where the pastoral landscape inspires young adolescents in love and joy, as captured in exquisite melodies by Butterworth before his own death at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Pastoral Symphony
Rarely performed yet imbued with a subtle delicacy, Vaughan William's calls up a calming landscape in this elegy for those who died fighting in the trenches, inspired by his own time among them.
Maurice Ravel - Mother Goose
- Daphnis et Chloe
