A concert of joyful symphonic masterpieces in celebration of the life of FSO’s former principal trumpet Stephen Hicks.
Edward Nesbit’s music has been performed by many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. His new work, commissioned by FSO with support from the Nigel Blake Celebration Fund, is dedicated to Stephen Hicks’s memory.
Written for the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto is a formidable and virtuosic work. It combines lyrical beauty and playful energy with moments of the composer’s trademark sardonic wit.
In Your boundaries are the sky, Stephen Hicks explores a vast sonic landscape, from whispered heights to subterranean depths, where musical ideas emerge, collide and drift away.
The programme concludes with Respighi’s spectacular musical postcard Pines of Rome, which paints a succession of scenes across the city, from playful children to nighttime birdsong, culminating in a triumphant, cinematic finale.