Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor, 'Scottish Symphony'
Harriet Burns soprano
Gabriella Teychenné Conductor
Join Southbank Sinfonia to celebrate a one-of-a-kind Burns Night, with a mixed platter of Scottish delights.
Malcolm Arnold’s irreverent Scottish Dances become drunker as they go on, with looser, tipsy rhythms that only break for what some call “a calm summer’s day in the Hebrides” in the third movement. Then, Thea Musgrave’s Songs for a Winter’s Evening sets Robbie Burns’ text to exquisite song - witty, wise, and wilful all at once.
Mendelssohn’s monumental Scottish Symphony concludes the evening – a piece that draws on the composer’s own experiences of the Highlands, with jaunty folkish rhythms that erupt into victorious fanfare in the finale. In Mendelssohn’s words, we’ll be “going to Scotland, with a rake for folk songs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives.”
