Soulful Epitaph Butterworth, Bridge, Tchaikovsky

Lighthouse, Poole

Butterworth composed his poignant Rhapsody as an orchestral epilogue to his song settings of the various Housman poems which explore life faced by the spectre of impending mortality. Influenced by Sibelius, Debussy and Vaughan Williams, it is a ravishing epitaph that sings of the tranquil landscape from which it grew. Bridge’s Oration for cello and orchestra, an expressionist concerto in one movement, alternates ghostly funeral marches with outbursts of terror and indignation. It is both an elegy for the fallen of the First World War and an anguished warning. The cello writing is exceptional – at times a declaiming speaker, at others muttering a train of thought arising from deep within the unconscious. Tchaikovsky approached his Fifth Symphony from a position of extreme self-doubt, fearing his muse was exhausted. “I am dreadfully anxious to prove not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer”. From its first note to last noble chord, it is filled with passionate self-questioning, exposing the soul of a deep and complex man.

Please note this concert is being livestreamed and some shots will include wide angle views of the audience.