Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

After Sibelius’s great hymn to his fellow countrymen, Finlandia, the super-talented Jennifer Pike joins the Royal Philharmonic and Anu Tali for two contrasting pieces for violin and orchestra: Mozart’s richly melodic Third Concerto and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. Inspired by a poem by George Meredith, in the latter piece the soloist imitates the skylark’s ecstatic song before soaring aloft over a delicate orchestral texture.

One evening in October 1898, Elgar sat down at his piano to improvise. “That’s a good tune” commented his wife, “what is it?”. “Nothing yet”, replied Elgar, “but something might be made of it”. What resulted was an affectionate series of musical pictures in which, taking the original ‘enigma’ theme as their starting point, Elgar portrayed his friends and loved ones in a gallery of melodious and richly orchestrated canvases.