Robert Schumann’s 2nd Symphony

Linton Stephens showcases the best performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

Throughout the week we are spending time in the spectacular Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, with a series of recordings made in the eye-catching 2017 concert hall by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Today, they play a pair of symphonies: Robert Schumann’s 2nd and Arthur Honegger’s 3rd, the ‘Liturgical’, a powerful piece written in the aftermath of the Second World War. Plus former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, baritone Konstantin Krimmel, joins the orchestra for Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel, settings of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Our ensemble in focus this week is Belgium Baroque group Vox Luminis. We’ll hear more from their concert from last year's Salzburg Festival: an oratorio by Giacomo Carissimi based on the Old Testament story of Jeptha.

1pm
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Songs of Travel
Konstantin Krimmel (baritone)
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Andris Poga (conductor)

Joseph Haydn
Piano Trio in A flat major
Esther Hoppe (violin)
Christian Poltéra (cello)
Hiroki Sakagami (piano)

Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 67
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier (conductor)

Nadia Boulanger
3 Pieces for Cello and Piano
Anastasia Kobekina (cello)
Jean-Selim Abdelmoula (piano)

Arthur Honegger
Symphony No. 3, ‘Liturgical’
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Andris Poga (conductor)

Giacomo Carissimi
Historia di Jephtha [The Story of Jephtha]
Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier (conductor)

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