Radio 3 in Concert: VE Day 80th Anniversary

Marking the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, a special concert of performances from three of the BBC orchestras, opening with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Elgar's deeply passionate Violin Concerto, with soloist Anthony Marwood. Britten, a pacifist composer, expressed the horrors of war in several haunting works, including his Sinfonia da Requiem, commissioned (and eventually rejected) by the Japanese government to mark Emperor Jimmu's 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire. Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Finally, Martyn Brabbins directs the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the most popular - and most peaceful - symphony by Vaughan Williams, who witnessed the brutality of war first-hand as an ambulance driver in World War I. Presented by Mark Forrest. Elgar: Violin Concerto. Anthony Marwood (violin), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Andrew Manze. Recorded at the Malvern Forum Theatre in February; Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem. BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Dalia Stasevska. Recorded at the Barbican Hall in October 2019; Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Martyn Brabbins. Recorded at Prichard-Jones Hall, Bangor, in November 2024