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Programme
- Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
- Harris - Symphony No. 6 'Last Letter'
- Schumann - Symphony No. 1 ‘Spring’
A Ross Harris première is an event, and his Sixth Symphony, with mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell, promises to be a highlight of the season.
The symphony sets poetry by Harris’s long-time collaborator Vincent O’Sullivan. Awaiting an unjust execution, a woman writes a farewell letter to her mother: Harris’s music tells the terrible story.
In the first piece on the programme, the APO strings will shine. Vaughan Williams’ massive, quietly ecstatic masterpiece is a cathedral in sound. Schumann’s perfectly named ‘Spring’ Symphony was sketched in just four days, in the early months of Schumann’s marriage, and it fairly bursts with uncomplicated joy.
