Conductor Jiří Rožeň is ed by British bass-baritone Ashley Riches for a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast.
Opening this afternoon is Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings. Bursting with emotion and composed in just two weeks, it remains one of the composer's most popular orchestral works.
Ashley Riches is the soloist for Mahler’s youthful song cycle - Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). With lyrics written by the composer himself – influenced by a collection of German folk poetry - it tells the story of a grief-stricken lover reflecting on his fate.
Opening with a hallucinatory, otherworldly texture, we also hear Martinů’s sixth (and last) symphony, which took the composer over two years to complete. Commenting on the piece to author Miloš Šafránek in 1955, Martinů remarked - “I don't know what, but… I have really expressed something in it”