17 May 2025, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
BBC Philharmonic 2024-25 Season Let me tell you
Let me tell you
Shakespeare takes centre stage and Elena Schwarz conducts Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle Let me tell you features soprano Jennifer as a defiant Ophelia, plus Beethoven’s Overture Coriolan and Symphony No. 1.
Shakespeare takes centre stage and Elena Schwarz conducts Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle Let me tell you features soprano Jennifer as a defiant Ophelia, plus Beethoven’s Overture Coriolan and Symphony No. 1.
Concert Information
Beethoven may be centre stage, but Shakespeare is once more in the wings for an extraordinary programme conducted by Elena Schwarz.
Ophelia, Hamlet’s doomed lover, narrates Hans Abrahamsen’s prize-winning song
cycle Let me tell you. With a vivid and virtuosic role, Jennifer becomes an empowered and defiant heroine worthy of a Scandi drama. Roman General Coriolanus appears in tonight’s curtain raiser; fortunately, Beethoven’s version is more child friendly than Shakespeare’s. Coriolan is also the starting point of Unsuk Chin’s miniature for orchestra, subito con forza. Powerful and impulsive, Unsuk Chin pulls no punches in her homage to Beethoven, surely something he would have approved of!
Beethoven’s symphonic canon is to the concert platform what Shakespeare’s plays are to the stage. We the man taking Vienna by storm at the start of his journey with the ebullient First Symphony. (Exit, pursued by a bear).