Colin Davis conducts Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony

Sibelius

The Oceanides, Op. 73

Tippett

The Rose Lake

Beethoven

Symphony No. 6 in F major, ‘Pastoral’

London Symphony Orchestra
Colin Davis (conductor)


Reviewed by:

Reviewed: 20 August, 2020
Venue:

Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is surely the apogee of the pastoral. Here it is prefaced by Sibelius’s late tone-poem, which he premiered in the USA, and Michael Tippett’s shimmering evocation of a Senegalese lakeside view. The last orchestral piece Tippett wrote, The Rose Lake was commissioned jointly by the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the composer’s 90th birthday.

As with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Tippett’s piece is concerned with expressions of feeling rather than description. The late Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra give free reign to that feeling in this thrilling concert from the 2001 Proms.

Read Past Reviews on the Classical Source

(From the BBC Proms 2001, 13 September)

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