English Idylls | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Vaughan Williams’s delightfully English The Wasps Overture opens the evening with zest and charm. Delius’s Piano Concerto, a piece that blends red-blooded Romanticism with pastoral-like gentleness, a tradition emulated in Butterworth’s The Banks of the Green Willow, a gorgeous exploration of a traditional folk theme.

A timeless bastion of English romanticism, Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations is regarded as one of the greatest pieces of music originating in the British Isles. A set of musical dedications to his friends, the mysterious main theme, the ‘Enigma’, remains unstated throughout, leaving the intrigue of this magnificent work a mystery up to this day.

This concert is kindly supported by the Delius Trust.