Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait

Elizabeth Alker features specially recorded concert performances from home and abroad to reflect 250 years of American Independence including Aaron Copland's stirring Lincoln Portrait crafted on the words of Abraham Lincoln and recorded by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow last month; the narrator is the award winning actor Rory Kinnear. Also in today's programme, religious music by Handel from the recent Rhine Vocal Festival and cellist Alban Gerhardt performs American composer Joan Tower's reflective and moving 'A New Day' for cello and orchestra, inspired by the final years of a loving marriage.

Samuel Barber
Knoxville - Summer of 1915
Sophia Burgos (soprano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Lee Reynolds (conductor)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for Flute and Harp, K. 299/297c
Adriana Ferreira (flute)
Silvia Podrecca (harp)
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Ottavio Dantone (conductor)

Aaron Copland
Lincoln Portrait
Rory Kinnear (narrator)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Christian Reif (conductor)

Johannes Brahms
Viola Sonata No. 2 in Eb major, Op. 120
Maxim Rysanov (viola)
Dasol Kim (piano)

William Grant Still
Mother and Child
Bern Symphony Orchestra
Michael Sanderling (conductor)

Georg Frideric Handel
Chandos Anthem No. 4, ‘O Sing Unto The Lord’, HWV 249
Elena Harsanyi (soprano)
Florian Sievers (tenor)
Wolfgang Klose (tenor)
Thomas Bonni (bass
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens (director)

Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 94 in G major, ‘Surprise’
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz (direction)

Joan Tower
A New Day for cello and orchestra
Alban Gerhardt (cello)
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra
Patrick Hahn (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say 'Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live'.