War casts its long shadow over this Prom given by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus – part of this season’s musical survey suggested by the centenary of the end of the First World War.
A precursor to Britten’s War Requiem (see Prom 72), Vaughan Williams’s cantata Dona nobis pacem is a heartbreakingly beautiful exploration of the violence of war, its expansive lyricism a natural foil for the compressed drama of Lili Boulanger’s choral miniature Pour les funérailles d’un soldat.
Elgar’s much-loved Cello Concerto, composed in the wake of the conflict, completes this emotive concert, with French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras as soloist.
Broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 2 September
Image: Sophie Bevan © Sussie-Ahlburg