Interrupted Stories

VIVALDI Overture, La verità in cimento SPOHR Symphony No. 2 HONEGGER Pastorale d’été BLISS Rout JAMES MACMILLAN Sinfonietta Life comes at you fast. In 1720, Vivaldi composes a dazzling overture for a carnival. In 1820, after two decades of war and revolution, Louis Spohr salutes his hero Beethoven in a symphony that pulses with drama. In 1920, Arthur Honegger watches sunrise over the Swiss Alps, and Arthur Bliss throws a riotous cocktail party. 2020 hasn’t been quite what anyone expected, either: and while we can’t (yet) end our 2020 Vision series the way we’d planned, with Sir James MacMillan’s new Christmas Oratorio, we’re finishing with a musical tale of hope shattered – and then restored – from one of Britain’s most original living composers.