Join us for the fifth installment in this year’s series of free BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concerts.

Three soloists – all winners of international competitions – make their Ulster Hall debut, together with the dynamic young British conductor Angus Webster, and returning favourites Jessica Cottis and Jac Van Steen.

This show opens with a short overture composed in the depths of World War 2. Written by Grażyna Bacewicz, a pioneering Polish female composer who studied with Nadia Boulanger, the work is full of courage and hope despite a fearful background.

The first set of Scènes Historiques by Sibelius come next, taken from music written for a patriotic pageant, staged in 1899 at a time of increasing Finnish nationalism and originally including Finlandia, which was published separately.

And finally, some Czech mythology rounds off this afternoon event, with Dvořák’s The Water Goblin: music inspired by a Czech Romantic poem found in a collection published by Karel Jaromír Erben, entitled Kytice.

The Ulster Orchestra will be conducted by its Honorary Principal Guest Conductor, Jac van Steen.

Programme
Bacewicz Overture for Orchestra
Sibelius Scenes Historiques Suite 1
Dvořák The Water Goblin