Barbican,
London, live streamSally Beamish’s Third Viola Concerto was the centrepiece of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra’s virtual trip to
Scotland Asked to explain what an unnamed symphony is about, a composer might reasonably answer “it’s about itself”. Exactly how our response changes when a title or context is given is a hefty question, but one that fascinates. When the associations are as potent as those with Sally Beamish’s Viola Concerto No 3, “Under the Wing of the Rock”, we are engaged from the start.
This persuasive 2006 work was the centrepiece of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Echoes of Scotland concert, directed by their talented young associate conductor, Alpesh Chauhan. It also featured Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony No 3 and Peter Maxwell Davies’s charmingly bibulous An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise.