Following their hugely successful visit to the South West in October, Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra make a triumphant return to Bath Forum with Bristol Beacon in March.
From Hannah Kendall’s 21st-century classic The Spark Catchers, through Dvořák’s playful homage to the New World, to Schumann’s most personal (some might say greatest) symphony, the show programme will take the audience on a fantastic emotional journey. Inspired by Lemn Sissay’s poem, the vigorous rhythms and soaring melodies of Kendall’s The Spark Catchers transport the audience into the lives of the women employed to catch stray sparks by London match manufacturers Bryant & May. Dvořák’s warm-hearted nostalgia for the New World is strongly felt in his American Suite, infused with a mix of American influences and Slavic tradition. Finally, despite being written at a difficult time of his life, the musical love-notes to his wife Clara that Schumann threaded throughout his Second Symphony give this work an emotional heart.