An evening of music full of powerful visual resonances.
Jonathan Tilbrook Conductor
Chloe Miller Assistant Conductor
Programme:
Tania León Pasajes
Claude Debussy Nocturnes
New Work (Trinity Laban Student Commission)
Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 9
Cuban-American composer Tania León’s Pasajes (2025) opens the evening, painting a jubilant sonic portrait of her Cuban childhood, composed during her time as Composer-in-Residence at the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Claude Debussy wrote his Nocturnes (L. 98) for orchestra between 1897 and 1899. The title reflects decorative light impressions rather than traditional night pieces, inspired in part by the impressionist paintings of James McNeill Whistler.
A new work by a Trinity Laban composer takes us to the interval, followed by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 9, the last symphony by the English composer completed during 1956 and 1957 and premiered in 1958. Believed to be inspired by the work of Thomas Hardy and the beauty of the Wessex countryside, the audience is taken on a journey that begins with the wind blowing across the stones of Stonehenge, and culminates in the foreboding bells at the end of Tess of the D’Urbervilles.