Radio 3 in Concert

Martin Handley presents from the Lighthouse in Poole as Mark Wigglesworth conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a highly lyrical programme of symphonies by Schubert and Zemlinsky, for which they are joined by soprano Claudia Boyle and baritone Roderick Williams. Schubert started writing his Eighth Symphony in B minor in 1822, six years before his death, but only completed two movements. Nobody knows why he left the work unfinished, but the two movements that exist have become some of Schubert's most beloved music, full of powerful drama and breathtaking melodies. Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony owes a clear debt to his contemporary Mahler and his Das Lied von der Erde. He looked East to set poems by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore and creating a stunning seven-movement operatic symphony that explores the ideas of longing and desire. Schubert: Symphony No 8 in B minor, D 759, Unfinished. Interval. Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony. Claudia Boyle (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Mark Wigglesworth (conductor).