Dream and confession

Be prepared: this is a programme that traverses emotional extremes. It begins gently and melancholic – sorrow can be beautiful – and concludes with the emotional outbursts that arise when the thunderous blows of the orchestra's thirteen hammers resonate through history, to the bone and marrow. It’s music that shakes you to the core.

In between, entirely different music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His first piano concerto is a musical fireworks display with dizzyingly fast runs across the entire range of the piano. At this concert, the rockets are ignited by the acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was only seventeen when he wrote his wonderful overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yet it is considered one of his first mature masterpieces, and the young composer manages to capture the full range of emotions that Shakespeare presents in his universally human comedy.

Emotions, indeed. British composer Anna Clyne composed the opening piece Within Her Arms in 2009, in memory of her mother. The music for string ensemble resonates with a tenderness and warmth reminiscent of for instance the Renaissance composer John Dowland.

Closing The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was composed in 1990 by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, who is featured in the International Composer Festival this autumn. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft has testified to the transformative experience when he first heard the incredibly powerful work as a teenager.

Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. ”On behalf of the Scottish people, the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life”, writes MacMillan. In her memory, he composed an unforgettable and poignant ”requiem” for orchestra.

Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft