Carter conducts Tchaikovsky

BBC Symphony Orchestra

February 1st 2024 at 19:30 – 21:30

Night thoughts: from the magic of Helen Grime to the fantasy of Richard Strauss and the unchained emotion of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique symphony, conducted by a true rising star.

Near midnight: as a long day closes, the spirit turns to reflection, whether in tranquillity or terror. Helen Grimes’ nocturnal tone-poem introduces two works from composers facing the ultimate question, in an emotionally-charged BBC Symphony Orchestra debut for the young Australian conductor Nicholas Carter.

The elderly Richard Strauss recaptured the elegant, bittersweet spirit of Mozart in his Oboe Concerto – and it’ll make a ravishing showcase for the BBC SO’s own principal oboe Tom Blomfield. Tchaikovsky’s final symphony couldn’t be more different: an impassioned musical autobiography, pulsing with great melodies and raw emotion. It should be an overwhelming climax to a concert that begins – according to Helen Grime – amid the mystery and magic of ‘tolling bells, high-spun moon and the indifference of night’.

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