Let me tell you
19:30
Sat 17 May 2025
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Programme
- Overture 鈥楥oriolan鈥�
- let me tell you
- Subito con forza
- Symphony No. 1
Performers
- Elena SchwarzConductor
- Jennifer Francesoprano
Concert Information
Beethoven may be centre stage, but Shakespeare is once more in the wings for an extraordinary programme conducted by Elena Schwarz.
Ophelia, Hamlet鈥檚 doomed lover, narrates Hans Abrahamsen鈥檚 prize-winning song
cycle Let me tell you. With a vivid and virtuosic role, Jennifer France becomes an empowered and defiant heroine worthy of a Scandi drama. Roman General Coriolanus appears in tonight鈥檚 curtain raiser; fortunately, Beethoven鈥檚 version is more child friendly than Shakespeare鈥檚. Coriolan is also the starting point of Unsuk Chin鈥檚 miniature for orchestra, subito con forza. Powerful and impulsive, Unsuk Chin pulls no punches in her homage to Beethoven, surely something he would have approved of!
Beethoven鈥檚 symphonic canon is to the concert platform what Shakespeare鈥檚 plays are to the stage. We join the man taking Vienna by storm at the start of his journey with the ebullient First Symphony. (Exit, pursued by a bear).