Poulenc and Adams

Live at the BBC Proms: The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Kazuki Yamada, with soloists Lucas & Arthur Jussen perform Poulenc Concerto for two pianos and Adams Harmonium.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Francis Poulenc: Sinfonietta
Francis Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor

c.7.50pm
Interval: Petroc Trelawny talks to Gillian Moore about John Adams’s choral symphony Harmonium, which connects to this year’s Proms theme of Afterlife & Visions of Beyond, and also looks ahead to Gillian's top picks in the second week of Proms concerts.

c.8.10pm
John Adams: Harmonium

Lucas and Arthur Jussen (pianos)
CBSO Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Chorus
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Kazuki Yamada (conductor)

The human voice ‘riding upon waves of rippling sound’ was the starting point for the glittering, pulsing soundscapes of John Adams’s Harmonium – one of the American composer’s defining works, harnessing the motoric energy of Minimalism to large-scale architectural form and textural richness. Commissioned by the BBC in 1947, Poulenc’s Sinfonietta is a typically playful, nose-thumbing riff on the traditional symphony, full of wit and brilliance – a mood it shares with the composer’s joyful, Mozart-inspired Concerto for two pianos. ‘Breathtaking’ Dutch siblings Lucas and Arthur Jussen make their Proms debut, joined by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Kazuki Yamada.