Rózsa and Bartók | London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – plus a rare performance of the Violin Concerto by Bartók’s fellow-Hungarian (and Hollywood legend) Miklós Rózsa.

New worlds for old: from exile in America, Béla Bartók and Miklós Rózsa both longed for their native Hungary. Bartók imagined the nocturnal sounds of the Great Hungarian Plain, and transformed them into a defiant shout of hope and joy for a virtuoso orchestra. Rozsa, meanwhile, took time out from Hollywood to write a violin concerto that sings, dances and positively smoulders.

It all adds up to a fabulously red-blooded evening of music from Sir Simon Rattle and LSO leader Roman Simovic: expect dark secrets, untamed melodies, and folk-rhythms in the raw. But it’s also a portrait of two composers grappling with the 20th century on their own, undaunted, terms. Today, Rózsa is still probably best known for classic film scores like Ben-Hur and Lust for Life: this rare performance of his Violin Concerto shows that even without the pictures, he can hold an audience spellbound.