O Albion | Orchestra of the Swan

Orchestra of the Swan presents an English idyll bookended with seminal works by JS Bach. Vaughan Williams’s complex and elaborate Oboe Concerto is the antithesis of his expansive, folk-infused portrayal of Dives and Lazarus. In O Albion, Thomas Adès evokes the Cavatina from Beethoven’s Opus 130 string quartet seen through the prism of Elgar’s Nimrod. Green by Thea Musgrave is about the idea of conflict and opposing musical forces. She says: “The title Green for me represents either the freshness of youth, or for the plant life in our world on which we all depend.”