Prom 71 – The Philadelphia Orchestra and Lisa Batiashvili

Part of the BBC Proms.

Love, life and death collide in this second concert from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Lisa Batiashvili is the soloist in two of the great 19th-century violin concertos-in-miniature. Originally titled The Song of Triumphant Love, Chausson’s Poème retains the rhapsodic spirit of its first sketches, while Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso is a Spanish-accented showcase of quicksilver brilliance and skill. By contrast, Rachmaninov’s atmospheric The Isle of the Dead paints the scene of a ghostly ferryman transporting the souls of the departed to rest. Pioneering African American composer Florence Price’s First Symphony – a work blending Classical forms with West African dances and spirituals – receives its Proms premiere in the second half.