Walton's Violin Concerto

Synopsis

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra comes to the Royal Albert Hall with new music director, the Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons. International superstar Midori is the soloist in Walton's Violin Concerto and the programme is bookended with music by Richard Strauss, his narrative tone poem Don Juan, and from the opera Salome - Dance of the Seven Veils with soloist Nadezhda Serdiuk. The CBSO Chorus sing the patriotic cantata by Prokofiev drawn from the music he composed for Eisentein's epic film about the medieval Russian hero Alexander Nevsky. Presenter Katie Derham goes to Birmingham to see Nelsons with his orchestra in rehearsal and explores how the chemistry is working.