BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 2022-23 Season The BBC Symphony Orchestra Performs George Walker

“I try to write something I'm going to be able to live with, and hope that others will begin to find some of the things that I feel have given certain strength to the music” said George Walker. “I don't really believe in creating something that doesn't have any strength”. The BBC Symphony Orchestra plays two of his late Sinfonias, as well as his single best-known work – the beautiful Lyric for Strings.

Walker didn’t go in for elaborate titles. “Things that are overly embellished, or that are too rich, just don’t suit my temperament” he said. But make no mistake, his Movements (a cello concerto by any other name), his concise but deeply-felt Mass and his late masterpiece – the Sinfonia No.5 – are music that speaks directly to our times, impassioned, unsparing and unambiguously sincere.