Messiaen: The Sermon to the Birds: Act II, Tableau 6 from Saint- François d’Assise (c.44 mins)
Beethoven: Symphony No.6 ‘Pastoral’(c.46 mins)
Soloists to be announced
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
‘I have always admired St Francis… he spoke to the birds, and I’m an ornithologist.’ For his dazzling, colourful score to his spectacular opera based on the life of the saint, bird-lover Olivier Messiaen interweaves layers of musical threads into a tapestry of sound as glorious as the dawn chorus. Here’s a rare chance to hear an excerpt from this extraordinary work with the BBC SSO’s Chief Conductor, Ryan Wigglesworth, at the helm. And is that a cuckoo we hear? Beethoven wasn’t above introducing the sounds of nature into his music, most famously in his popular Sixth Symphony. This ode to the natural world has a bracing, invigorating energy that’s bound to fill you with the joys of spring.
