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The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo in Arnold's Symphony No.5, and Carwithen's Piano Concerto with Alexandra Dariescu. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Singers join for Vaughan Williams's Serenade.

Recorded at the Barbican on April 11th, 2025. Presented by Ian Skelly

Ralph Vaughan: Williams: Serenade to Music*
Doreen Carwithen: Concerto for Piano

Interval

Malcolm Arnold: Symphony No. 5

Alexandra Dariescu (piano)
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Singers*
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Malcolm Arnold never did anything by halves, and when he composed his Fifth Symphony he poured out his soul. Soaring melodies, gleaming colours and raw, heart-on-sleeve emotion: this is British music as you’ve never heard it before. It’s a gripping counterpart to Doreen Carwithen’s Concerto, and the radiance and rapture of Vaughan Williams’s gorgeous Serenade.

For ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra chief conductor Sakari Oramo, British music is a passion – especially the masterpieces that the British themselves have overlooked. The Serenade to Music is a perennial favourite, but today the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Singers revive the composer’s ravishing original version. And pianist Alexandra Dariescu is just as committed to the music of Doreen Carwithen – like Arnold, a postwar composer who’s music is richly melodic, atmospheric, and evocative.