BBC Symphony Orchestra: Bernstein and Rachmaninoff

A powerful musical reflection on America’s past, present and future, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniele Rustioni. The concert opens with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story — an electrifying plea for tolerance, driven by rhythm and raw emotional energy. At the heart of the programme is ANTHEM, a contemporary collaboration led by Barbican Artist in Residence Davóne Tines, bringing together new music by Michael Schachter, Caroline Shaw and Tyshawn Sorey, with text by poet Mahogany L. Browne, to ask what a nation is — and what it could become.

The evening concludes with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, written in the composer’s American exile: a radiant, bittersweet work where nostalgia and possibility intertwine.

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