Prom 4The Four Seasons

Part of the BBC Proms.Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto leads one of Europe’s top chamber orchestras, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, in a Prom part-inspired by the natural world. A BBC documentary was the starting point for Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi’s Birds of Paradise, whose iridescent colours and sharp textural contrasts capture the exotic birds. Closer to home, a cuckoo calls out in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, whose pastoral scenes are heard as never before here – interspersed with folk music improvisations by Kuusisto and citternist Ale Carr. Beethoven’s youthful First Symphony forms the beating heart of the programme.