Sinfonia Viva: Stunning Strings

Following the success of their inaugural Sunday matinee last season, Sinfonia Viva turn to three supremely beautiful pieces for string orchestra. Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia was a breakthrough piece for the young composer and its multi layered re-imagining of Tallis’s sixteenth century psalm still exerts a mesmerising hold. Pulitzer Prize-winning George Walker’s Lyric for Strings began life as a part of a string quartet in 1946 and its impassioned string orchestra version carries a powerful emotive charge. In writing his Serenade for Strings, Tchaikovsky was inspired by elegant earlier models by Mozart. Rendered on a grander scale, this romantic giant has it all: majesty, grace and irresistible momentum.