Afternoon Performance: Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances

Tickets On Sale: 10am, Thursday 9 May 2024

BBC SSO 2024/25: Afternoon Performance - Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances

Grażyna Bacewicz Overture (c.6 mins)

Strauss Songs for soprano (c. 19 mins)

(Ich wollt ein Sträußlein binden, Morgen, Säusle liebe Myrthe,

Wiegenlied, Als mir dein Lied erklang)

Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances (c.35 mins)

Johanna Wallroth soprano

Teresa Riveiro Böhm conductor

Sergei Rachmaninov was born in imperial Russia, but he died in Beverly Hills, and his Symphonic Dances fuse the melancholy of exile with the rhythm, the glamour and the sheer verve of the jazz-age USA. Dream ballet? Showpiece for orchestra? Or simply the most personal symphony Rachmaninov never wrote? However you hear them, guest conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm has made them the climax of a concert filled with powerful voices and dark poetry. Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture gets things off to an electrifying start. Then BBC New Generation Artist Johanna Wallroth turns the leaves of the Richard Strauss songbook: miniature worlds of tenderness, melody and romance, perfectly suited to what one critic called the “pure magic” of her voice.