Belshazzar’s Feast

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is joined by pianist Steven Osborne for a programme including Gershwin, Bernstein and Walton.

Recorded last week at The Lighthouse, Poole, and presented by Martin Handley.

Bernstein: West Side Story: Symphonic Dances
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Interval

Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast

Steven Osborne (piano)
Andrew Hamilton (baritone)
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill (conductor)

Adapted from Bernstein's iconic West Side Story, his nine-movement symphonic dances take listeners on a whistle-stop tour of the music the composer penned for his retake of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet story. Andrew Hamilton in the baritone in Walton's cantata - a work the composer set at the BBC's behest to Osbert Sitwell's libretto of the biblical story at which the Babylonian king Belshazzar commits sacrilege. Together with, Bernstein's curtain-raiser, Walton's jazzy depiction of the fall of Babylon sandwiches Gershwin's ode to African-American jazz and American popular song and dance: his concerto-like work piano, Rhapsody in Blue, with soloist Steven Osborne.

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