Beethoven’s exuberant Eighth Symphony comes as a bright shaft of sunshine between the stormy Seventh and complex Ninth. John Storgårds, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic, follows Beethoven’s great affirmation with a work of valediction: Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates. Written for legendary bass Sir John Tomlinson and featuring the BBC Symphony Chorus, this cantata dramatises Socrates’s trial, with double chorus accusing him of corrupting the city’s youth. Socrates makes an emotional defence of his right to an enquiring mind and freedom of speech before drinking from the hemlock cup.
BBC SO Plus Intro
6.00pm Fountain Room
A free talk featuring Mark Lowther in conversation with Brett Dean.
