Winter Festival 2 - A Terrible Beauty – English String Music, from 1900 to 1939

London Virtuosi Ensemble
Rachael Montesino Young (conductor)
Actors tbc

A Terrible Beauty explores the extraordinary flowering of English string music in the first decades of the twentieth century — music of radiant lyricism and haunting emotional depth, written in the shadow of a rapidly changing world. Performed by the newly formed LoVE (London Virtuosi Ensemble) under the direction of Rachael Montésino Young, who has regularly assisted world-renowned conductor Paavo Järvi in concerts and recordings, this programme brings together some of the most evocative and beloved works in the English string repertoire.

At its heart lies a profound sense of beauty touched by fragility. Composed between the final years of the Edwardian era and the uncertain decades between two world wars, these works reflect a society poised between nostalgia and modernity, serenity and upheaval. The soaring lines of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis seem to suspend time itself, while the aching tenderness of Elgar’s Sospiri and Elegy speaks of loss, remembrance and longing. Frank Bridge’s elegant Valse–Intermezzo captures the glittering surface of a vanished world, and Michael Tippett’s exhilarating Concerto for Double String Orchestra bursts forth with rhythmic vitality, yet beneath its energy lies an undercurrent of tension and unease, hinting at the uncertainties and gathering shadows of a world on the brink of conflict.

From the sweeping grandeur of Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro to the luminous spirituality of Vaughan Williams, this is music of extraordinary richness and emotional power - at once intimate and expansive, deeply English yet universal in its humanity.

A compelling and atmospheric evening of string music, A Terrible Beauty invites audiences into a sound world of warmth, passion and poignancy.

This concert is promoted in association with Pivot Media Venture Partners LLP.