Tonight’s celebration of the sun-scorched landscapes of Spain opens with Falla’s flamenco ballet El amor brujo, rich in Andalusian folk melodies and featuring the famous ‘Ritual Fire Dance’.

Joshua Bell is the soloist in Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, whose title conceals a virtuosic violin concerto steeped in the sounds of Spain, while Cameron Carpenter takes to the organ console in Saint-Saëns’s mighty ‘Organ’ Symphony. ‘With it I have given all I could,’ observed the composer. ‘What I did I could not achieve again.’

Falla
El amor brujo 24’

Lalo
Symphonie espagnole 34’

interval

Saint-Saëns
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, ‘Organ’ 36’

Stéphanie d’Oustrac mezzo-soprano
Joshua Bell violin
Cameron Carpenter organ

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Dutoit conductor