Symphonies by George Walker and William Walton, and Leonard Bernstein's Serenade inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, with solo violinist Carolin Widmann.
Symphonies by George Walker and William Walton, and Leonard Bernstein's Serenade inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, with solo violinist Carolin Widmann. Widmann is the perfect soloist for what she calls Bernstein's "homage to love" - she did a double degree in music and philosophy! The London Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor Antonio Pappano frames it with two highly charged symphonies. In 2015 George Walker was in his mid-90s when a white supremacist killed nine African Americans at a Bible study class in Charleston, South Carolina - and he was moved to write what Pappano calls his "enraged, sad and poignant" Fifth Sinfonia. Walton's First Symphony emerged from the wreckage of a love affair, and - as Pappano says - "all his frustration, despair, bitterness is in this music".
George Walker: Sinfonia No 5, ‘Visions’
Leonard Bernstein: Serenade (after Plato's 'Symposium')
with Carolin Widmann (violin)
William Walton: Symphony No 1
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Antonio Pappano
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