Purcell, arr. Britten
Chacony 7'
Lutosławski
Paroles tissées 15'
L. Berkeley, Britten, Oldham, Searle, Tippett, Walton
Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (Sellinger's Round)
with new variations by Tansy Davies and John Woolrich 24'
BBC commission: world premiere
Britten
Serenade for tenor, horn and strings 25'
Ben Johnson tenor
Richard Watkins horn
English Chamber Orchestra
Paul Watkins conductor
There will be no interval
To mark the coronation in 1953, Lennox Berkeley, Britten, Arthur Oldham, Humphrey Searle, Tippett and Walton composed a series of variations on 'Sellinger's Round', a melody harmonised four centuries earlier by William Byrd and orchestrated in 1953 by Imogen Holst.
Today the English Chamber Orchestra adds two new variations to the set, by John Woolrich and Tansy Davies, in a matinee that also features two vivid works written for tenor Peter Pears: Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Lutosławski's Paroles tissées.