Orchestra Of Opera North, Richard Farnes

Music Director of Opera North, Richard Farnes concludes his illustrious 12-year term with the company with a performance of Lutos?awski’s Concerto for Orchestra and Mahler’s First Symphony.

The Concerto for Orchestra by the Polish composer Witold Lutos?awski was premièred in 1954 and, like Bartók’s earlier work of the same title, is a remarkable demonstration of the virtuosity of the modern symphony orchestra.

With folk melodies rubbing up against 20th century atonality and building to a dramatic climax, it’s the perfect piece with which to celebrate the creative partnership of Richard Farnes and the Orchestra of Opera North.

Mahler’s First Symphony is full of vivid orchestral scene-painting, from the ethereal, glorious opening sunrise from which the work derives its nickname, 'Titan', to a fittingly triumphant conclusion. Mahler’s breath-taking work uses the full dynamic range of the orchestra in its shifts from intimate to epic: “The symphony should be like the world,” said the composer; “it should embrace everything.”