London Symphony Orchestra
Marta Gardolińska makes Brighton debut with London Symphony Orchestra
Marta Gardolińska conductor
Gareth Davies flute
Lili Boulanger D’un matin du printemps
Marc-Andre Dalbavie Concerto for Flute
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4 in F minor Op.36
Silvestrov Prayer for Ukraine
The orchestra shouts, and a solo flute turns dizzying cartwheels. Savage fanfares sound: and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony plunges into a life-or-death struggle with the force he called ‘Fate’. And in another world, a young genius distils the vitality of a spring morning into music that glistens like dew.
If this concert sounds colourful, that’s because it is. The luminous optimism of the young Lili Boulanger is poles apart from the raw passion and white-hot melodies of Tchaikovsky’s semi-autobiographical symphony, but guest conductor Marta Gardolińska will make them both spring vividly to life – just as the LSO’s Principal Flute Gareth Davies will bring out all the dazzle and daring of Dalbavie’s 21st-century classic.
Gardolińska and the LSO will also set the incomparable 19th Century Russian Tchaikovsky in context with the hauntingly moving work by 21st Century Ukrainian Silvestrov, marking the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A message from conductor Marta Gardolińska:
‘Do we have the moral right to be silent when we are given a platform? As artists, there is little we can do in times of war, but we can use our platform to try to convey important messages. Today, we can remind our audiences that not far away there is a country with a rich and proud culture, an incredible force of spirit and a sense of beauty. It is a country that shares our values of freedom and peace, but those values are under horrific attack. This amazing nation has produced not only fierce defenders but also art of the highest level. In Ukraine artists are now being forced either to flee their homes or fight for them; Ukrainian cultural institutions are being bombed, their artworks stolen. We have therefore decided to close this concert with Valentin Silvestrov’s Prayer for Ukraine, a piece written at the start of the war in 2014. Let us take a moment to commemorate the victims and to pray for the brave defenders of freedom and our Western values.’