ARIEL BARNES, CELLO, VSO/ BRAMWELL TOVEY

In the first concert of what might be seen as a mini-British Festival, VSO Principal Cello Ariel Barnes makes his concerto debut performing Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto.  (The second concert will feature Britten’s dramatic and moving War Requiem in November.)  Equally inspiring on the programme, and perhaps long overdue, is a performance of Vaughan Williams biting and powerful Symphony No. 4 (1935), the first of what we now think of as his three great ‘War Symphonies’, even though the composer deemed it as nothing other than ‘pure music’ at the time of composition.  It is certainly a marked departure from much of his previous orchestral writing.  The program also includes the beautiful orchestral idyll, The Banks of Green Willow, by Vaughan Williams’s close friend, George Butterworth.

OCTOBER 4, 8PM, OCTOBER 5, 2PM, ORPHEUM AND OCTOBER 6, 8PM, BELL CENTRE 

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